Fukuoka anti-yakuza center computer hacked

A Fukuoka-based center that is involved in anti-yakuza efforts announced on March 23 that personal information of around 3,500 residents and others who consulted the center may have been stolen when one of its computers was hacked, though there has been no reports of damage so far.

A male employee in his 60s was looking at information on industrial league baseball teams on his workplace computer during lunch break on March 20, when a notice reading, Your computer has been infected by a Trojan horse, and popped up on his screen, according to the Fukuoka Prefecture Center. A party claiming to be Windows security service sent a message. The employee phoned the number indicated in the description and downloaded an app as instructed by the party on the other end. The computer was hacked into remotely.

The employee noticed that it was a scam after the other party demanded a payment of 20,000 yen to remove a virus and shut off the internet connection. The computer was remotely controlled for around 20 minutes.

The computer owned by the center, a public interest foundation based in the city of Fukuoka, held a record of the names, addresses and phone numbers of residents and others who had consulted with the center about damage by crime syndicates.

The center reported to the Fukuoka Prefectural Police that the case was a fraud attempt, and will store the register on an external hard disk drive moving forward.

The center's managing director, Yoshinobu Onoue, said we will work to prevent a recurrence.