Japan to Hack IoT Ahead of 2020 Olympics

The Japanese government approved an amendment to allow government workers to hack into citizens’ internet of things (IoT) devices as part of efforts to improve cybersecurity ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Beginning next month, devices in people’s homes and offices will be subject to government scrutiny, whereby members of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology will create usernames and passwords as they try to hack into upwards of 200 million devices, such as routers and webcams, according to NHK World. According to a report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Cyber-Security Office, two-thirds of the cyber attacks in Japan in 2016 targeted IoT devices. The heightened risk to connected devices at high-profile events like the Olympics has sparked a desire to mitigate risks with a heightened degree of urgency.