http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1085944451298 June 2 2004 Softbank president Masayoshi Son would probably be feeling more pleased with himself about his latest deal to take over Japan Telecom, were it not for a public embarrassment within his own, supposedly techno-savvy organisation. Two men arrested and charged with trying to blackmail Softbank with data they held on the group's customers were, it turns out, both contributors to PC Japan, a Softbank publication full of tips on network security. Yutaka Tomiyasu allegedly obtained information on users of Yahoo BB, Softbank's broadband internet service provider, from its database and tried to extort payment in exchange for returning the information. In 3½ years he had more than 30 articles appear in PC Japan, a publication for advanced PC users that specialises in network security matters. The latest is in the June edition. His unnamed partner, who was a temporary employee at Softbank, wrote a feature article last year about how to protect against hacking and viruses. How are they alleged to have got to the database? While working for Softbank, Tomiyasu's partner had been given a user name and password needed to access it from a remote terminal. Softbank - wait for it - didn't bother to change these after he left, since they were being used by other employees who needed access to the data. Oh dear. _________________________________________ ISN mailing list Sponsored by: OSVDB.org
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