As the nation prepares itself to host major global events this year like the summer Olympic Games, Rugby World Cup this year and the Group of 20 meetings, it also plans to check possible vulnerabilities in various network devices.
The survey will be carried out by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology under the guidance and observance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications starting from February. They are going to use passwords and ids like ‘1234’, ‘admin’,’abcd’ etc. which can be easily exploited or hacked by malware.The authorities and ISPs will be given a list of insecure IoT devices that use these kinds of passwords so that consumers can be made aware of how to properly secure these devices.
The test will not be performed on individual mobile phones because that would be very expensive. However, cafe routers will be checked for any cyber vulnerability. Approximately, 200 million devices will be surveyed for the purpose. It will be performed on consent by the Internet Service Providers and will only target devices that use cables for connectivity. The authorities and ISPs will be given a list of insecure IoT devices that use these kinds of passwords so that consumers can be made aware of how to properly secure these devices.
The sporting events use the existing technologies in various processes like ticketing, promoting and broadcasting. Therefore, cybersecurity is a very important aspect to be checked regularly to avoid any disruption or leakage of confidential information.
The institute spokesman Tsutomu Yoshida says that a large number of webcams installed are hacked easily due to poor security design and hence the pictures are available to the public without the authorities being informed. The internet network and devices went down at PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games last year just when they began the ceremony.
The current year 2019-2020 is a big year for the tech-nation and to keep up with its tag, it cannot afford even the slightest mistake. As they say, prevention is better than cure, so handling and analyzing the situation beforehand can save disasters.
