Suspected hacker held over Web site breach
Date: February 05, 2004
Source: Japan Times Online.com
A Kyoto University researcher was arrested Wednesday for allegedly hacking into the Web site of a computer software association in November to steal personal information.
Kazuho Kawai, 40, is suspected of stealing the personal information of 1,200 people, including their names, addresses and phone numbers, from the Association of Copyright for Computer Software Web site between Nov. 6 and 8.
Kawai, known as "office" in cyber circles, has hacked into the official Web site of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other sites owned by government offices and companies over the last three years, police and cyber sources said.
He has posted information about security defects in computer systems on his personal Web site, and the information has also appeared in magazines.
Kawai taught people attending an event in Tokyo how to gain unauthorized access to computers after hacking into the Tokyo-based association's site, police said.
He is suspected of obstructing the association's business by informing it that he was able to obtain personal information from its Web site, prompting the association to shut it down, police said.
They said the researcher told them he hacked into the site to alert the association of the fragility of the computer programs it was using.
The personal information stolen was provided by people who had consulted the association about problems related to copyrights and privacy, they said.
Kawai is the nephew of Hayao Kawai, a leading Jungian psychologist in Japan and head of the government's Cultural Affairs Agency.
Hayao Kawai said in a statement Wednesday it is "very regrettable" that his nephew had been arrested.
Apart from working at the Kyoto University International Innovation Center from 2001, Kazuho Kawai worked in a section of the university in charge of researching copyright issues.
"It is a matter of great regret if these allegations are true," said Kazumi Matsushige, head of the center.
Original article
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