Japan's law now allows it to hack people’s IoT devices

Japan has approved a law amendment which allows government officials to hack into people’s Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The amendment is part of a survey investigating the number of vulnerable IoT devices carried out by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) under the supervision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC). Japan is carrying out the survey to prevent the devices from being harnessed for a cyber attack targeting infrastructure supporting the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. The number of viewers which sporting events attract make them a prime target. Back in February last year, a cyber attack hit the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics during the opening ceremony. The so-called ‘Olympic Destroyer’ malware was linked to Russian threat actors. It’s suspected the malware was deployed in response to the banning of Russian athletes prior to the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.