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| Phishers prey on innocent web users, stealing
their confidential login details and passwords. |
A man who created a bogus website, posing as Yahoo Japan, and
stole personal information from users of the nation's largest
internet portal, has received a 22 month prison sentence, suspended
for four years - meaning he will walk free.
42-year-old Kazuma Yabuno created the fake website in February
2005, and obtained the account names and passwords of Yahoo members
in order to gain illegal access to their private email.
Yabuno, a former computer systems engineer, was sentenced by
Judge Mitsuaki Takayama who said that the sentencing took into
account that "[Yabuno] did not use the stolen information to commit
other crimes."
"This case is significant, because it is the first time a
phisher has been convicted in Japan," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Some will raise eyebrows at the
leniency of the sentence as the middle-aged culprit has effectively
got away with it. One wonders if he had broken into hundreds of
houses, and not stolen any belongings, whether he would have
escaped with a slap on the wrist. Courts around the world need to
be more consistent in how they punish phishers, scammers, virus
writers and hackers."
Sophos has published best practice tips to
advise individuals on how to avoid being phished.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.