Japan reports 40% rise in cybercrime last year

Japan‘s National Police Agency has released an annual survey of cybercrime statistics, showing a further sharp rise during 2006, Virus Bulletin reports.

Some 4,425 computer crimes were recorded by police last year, more than four times the number for 2000, when police began collating their statistics.

Among the crimes reported, password theft was thought to be a major issue, with the number of incidents involving theft of online auction site passwords more than double the previous year’s figure.

While scams targeting online banks showed only a slight rise, online gamers were hit by more than five times as many attacks as the previous year.

Most significantly, while only 34 reports noted in 2005 involved phishing scams or the use of spyware to obtain sensitive personal data, 417 such cases were recorded in 2006.