Japanese Police Offers First-Ever Reward For Wanted Hacker

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Japanese Police Offers First-Ever Reward For Wanted Hacker

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 13, 2012 @05:28PM from the east-meets-wild-west dept.

alphadogg writes "Japanese police are looking for an individual who can code in C#, uses a 'Syberian Post Office' to make anonymous posts online, and knows how to surf the web without leaving any digital tracks — and they're willing to pay. It is the first time that Japan's National Police Agency has offered a monetary reward for a wanted hacker, or put so much technical detail into one of its wanted postings. The NPA will pay up to $36,000, the maximum allowed under its reward system. The case is an embarrassing one for the police, in which earlier this year 4 individuals were wrongly arrested after their PCs were hacked and used to post messages on public bulletin boards. The messages included warnings of plans for mass killings at an elementary school posted to a city website."

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Dude ... Hold Up ! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 17:38 · Score: 0, Troll

The NPA has no one who can code (i.e. read, write, understand) C#, use Syberian Post Office in any capacity, surf the web without leaving any 'digital tracks'.
I mean, really !
This is completely bogus ... not evan a WTF moment.
The original poster need some serious language training.
XD
1. Re:Dude ... Hold Up ! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:09 · Score: 0
  
  They're not looking to *hire* someone like that, you knucklehead.
Ghost in the Shell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 17:38 · Score: 0

the laughing man stand alone complex
1. Re:Ghost in the Shell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:01 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Nah, the Laughing Man was somewhat ethical. This sounds like one of his impersonators, which points to the Japanese government itself. So why would they post a reward for themselves? Wouldn't they want to make it as low profile as possible? Perhaps there is a rogue police agency in play here.
2. Re:Ghost in the Shell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:05 · Score: 0
  
  the laughing butt stands alone
3. Re:Ghost in the Shell by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 22:19 · Score: 0
  
  Oh Really
4. Re:Ghost in the Shell by morgauxo · 2012-12-14 02:17 · Score: 1
  
  Well, no, hypothetically if they were doing things to make someone else look bad they would want to be seen. Otherwise what is the point?
They're lucky if they're caught. by GoodNewsJimDotCom · 2012-12-13 17:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

I think hackers have more to fear from the mafia underground than legal authorities. If you get caught by the federalies, they'll put you in prison for a few years, and you can rethink your criminal ways. However... if you start looking for profit with your data breeches, and you start looking into money mule networks then the mafia and seedy underground isn't very far away. What if that breech at the door isn't the feds, but some mafiaa goons who tell you to keep doing what you're doing, but they'll protect you for the cool price of all your profits. People who look to get into a life of crime may find it.

It is only a matter of time before a crime syndicate forms over all these careless hackers. They could recruit spammers, and hackers could be used to find more hackers...

--
God spoke to me
1. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by VortexCortex · 2012-12-13 19:09 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I think hackers have more to fear from the mafia underground than legal authorities.
  LOL, Does your made for Hollywood vision of script kiddies getting swept up in a sea of crime star a young Angelina Jolie flying through 3D cyberspace with her trusty RISC and spray-painted Kom-Pu-Tah? If you ask me, that's a market niche worth mining.
  
  Oi, Tony, get a load of this prick 'ere pissin' on our cyber-turf? What do you say we pay 'em a lil' visit and make 'em an offer they can't refuse?
  
  Look, Guido, I know you flunked school -- and fuck teachers -- but this little pissant isn't worth a fuckkin' trip to Japan, you simple non-geographically inclined muther fukker. Besides, we got a deal with the Yakuza, we don't slice their sushi, and they don't bust our meatballs. Capiche?
  
  Boss-san, my re-pourt: A skeript kehddie crahk-ed sivral of low-cal kom-pu-tah, make poust on line, distrak poulice.
  
  IDDIOHT! What I pay yiu fo?! Not dis! Hak moh! Make money! No skeript keds! Lucky yiu un-kal my borther!
2. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-12-13 19:09 · Score: 1
  
  Data breeches go well with my network clogs.
  Stop using autocorrect.
3. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 19:54 · Score: 0
  
  What if that breech at the door isn't the feds, but some mafiaa goons who tell you to keep doing what you're doing, but they'll protect you for the cool price of all your profits.
  Small time criminals might sacrifice long term profits for short term, but a mafia wouldn't do so, much less so for a small sum. They may take a huge share, but they know they have to make it worth the other guy's time too. Only movie villains who are evil for the sake of being evil do what you say.
4. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by Joce640k · 2012-12-13 20:19 · Score: 1
  
  I think hackers have more to fear from the mafia underground than legal authorities.
  LOL, Does your made for Hollywood vision of script kiddies getting swept up in a sea of crime star a young Angelina Jolie flying through 3D cyberspace with her trusty RISC and spray-painted Kom-Pu-Tah? If you ask me, that's a market niche worth mining.
  I'm more worried about how low the qualifications for "Hacker" have sunk over the last few years.
  
  --
  No sig today...
5. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by lightknight · 2012-12-13 23:03 · Score: 2
  
  Borrowed a friend's laptop, they're still logged into Facebook, I change a few things -> LOL I@M71337H@x0r
  Yes, the quality has dropped. Through the floor. People getting caught for this stuff these days are doing the technological equivalent of jay-walking. And the people spooked by them are the types that they still scared of telling stories around a camp-fire.
  
  --
  I am John Hurt.
6. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 23:08 · Score: 0
  
  USERS have more to fear from the underground exploitation of their data, than from legal authorities CURRENTLY collecting it. (this may change for the worse if government starts exploiting such data)
  The legal authorities wanting to store everything for years is EXACTLY what will get exploited by the underground.
  When you buy something with a credit card online, You don't need the fucking logs stored by your ISP past a few weeks.
  It's a breech waiting to happen.
  So are a lot of other patterns you generate, and they now save.
  Further on the paranoid side, such data being collected by both the underground and government with it's "fucking state secrets to hide treason" is enough to financially ruin or even kill people, all with no oversight be it underground or government.
7. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-14 00:14 · Score: 0
  
  Personally, I never wear clogs without winsocks on.
8. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by TheCarp · 2012-12-14 03:00 · Score: 2
  
  This is actually an excellent point.
  I am not worried so much about current authorities. I am worried about the precedent they set and the dangers of what they are building. We have already seen massive exploitation of data that has been the result of the screwups of central authorities.
  it was not long ago that drivers licence numbers were regularly SSNs, and the public record thus included your SSN, Address, Name, and DOB. You can purchase CDs, from the states, with the entire database of ALL drivers licence records in that state...why? Because its public record. Oops...why did you think tthere has been so much Identity theft?
  Take it a step further....Athens, just a few years ago. It was found, accidentally by maintenance, that a teclo switches wiretap functions had been used by an unknown party to tap the phones of people all over the city, including government officials and human rights groups. Why is there wiretap functionality in the first place? Because the government enforcers mandate it.
  They always do it for the best reasons. Yes it will help them investigate, as will storing data forever. Why they want it is never the issue. They always want it for the best reasons, to go after the corrupt, the violent, etc. The issue is all the other uses that these mechanisms can be, and frequently are, turned to serve....whether it be by organized crime, or future corrupt government.
  
  --
  "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
9. Re:They're lucky if they're caught. by hAckz0r · 2012-12-14 03:36 · Score: 1
  
  What if that breech at the door isn't the feds, but some mafiaa goons who tell you to keep doing what you're doing, but they'll protect you for the cool price of all your profits.
  
  In order for that scenario to happen the Mafia have to be better Internet sleuths than the Feds, and the hacker, otherwise they will never know who the hacker is. If the Mafia are not technically adept to hacking they won't be able to track you down, unless you are stupid enough to not be worth their time. If the Mafia are technically adept enough to track you down then they don't need you, your just in the way. Catch 22.
  Its the hacker that seeks out the Mafia that will get told to keep doing it. If you are stupid enough to seek them out then you just get what you asked for, lots of money, and a very short life expectancy.
  I think I would rather work for the good guys.
butts by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:02 · Score: 0

i think that the police are a bunch of butts
great detective work by slashmydots · 2012-12-13 18:04 · Score: 3, Insightful

Classic framing/griefing. Obviously they should add "and they probably know all 4 of those people" to the evidence list. I guess they overlooked that little tidbit. Otherwise good luck tracking down proxies and Tor exit nodes cuz that info is as worthless as it gets when it comes to finding this person.
1. Re:great detective work by Black+Parrot · 2012-12-13 18:12 · Score: 1
  
  Classic framing/griefing. Obviously they should add "and they probably know all 4 of those people" to the evidence list. I guess they overlooked that little tidbit. Otherwise good luck tracking down proxies and Tor exit nodes cuz that info is as worthless as it gets when it comes to finding this person.
  Surely not many people use a "Syberian" post office, or even know where to find one.
  
  --
  Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
2. Re:great detective work by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:39 · Score: 0
  
  Surely not many people use a "Syberian" post office, or even know where to find one.
  Mr. Sokal knows.
3. Re:great detective work by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:41 · Score: 0
  
  real question here: how did he register for it--in person or remotely? Over the phone (traceable maybe) or an automatic service? or did he hack their records and appropriate the PO Box? How did he pay? Through which service--Credit, paypal, bitcoin (not that I think bitcoin is accepted in Syberia)...
4. Re:great detective work by AmiMoJo · 2012-12-13 20:52 · Score: 1
  
  Actually the attacks seem to be random rather than targeted. The suspicion is that people followed malicious links posted on 2ch or downloaded malware from P2P apps.
  We may have seen the perfect cybercrime.
  It's good that the police can at least understand that these people were framed. In the UK the police couldn't even figure out that credit cards used to buy child porn were stolen and it took people years to clear their names, if they didn't commit suicide first.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
5. Re:great detective work by richlv · 2012-12-14 00:52 · Score: 1
  
  good reference :)
  wondering where the original typo comes from.
  also, finished syberia 1, but got stuck in syberia 2 - most likely because of a bug :/
  
  --
  Rich
6. Re:great detective work by wisnoskij · 2012-12-14 01:57 · Score: 1
  
  Syberia 3 is being currently being worked on. So excited.
  
  --
  Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
7. Re:great detective work by Gerinych · 2012-12-14 05:04 · Score: 0
  
  They're gonna cross it with Post Mortem/Still Life world, right?
So keep your hacking on a small scale by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:08 · Score: 0

and don't get too big for your breeches.
Thats why I: by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:16 · Score: 0

Woke up this morning got yourself a gun!
Syberian Post Office? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:24 · Score: 1

WTF is a Syberian Post Office? I've never heard of such a thing, and a google search returns 300 copies of TFA...
1. Re:Syberian Post Office? by ikaruga · 2012-12-13 18:51 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  If you can read Japanese the definition is in this page.
  Basically there is an anonymous board in Japan known as 2ch, which is the "father" of 2chan.net and "grandfather" of 4chan and all other *chan websites. Sometimes your IP is blocked for some reason and you can't post. So you used this Siberian Post Office as some sort of proxy and it posts for you.
LOLWUT? by MacGyver2210 · 2012-12-13 18:39 · Score: 1

I love their definition of the 'hacker'.
It could be basically any tech-savvy young person with these qualifiers:
Can code in C#: Easiest language ever. With the MS version it basically codes for you, and you just make sure it doesn't do anything stupid.
Uses a Syberian Post Office: No idea what this is, but assuming some software, I'm sure it's downloadable with some searching.
Knows how to surf without leaving digital tracks: Clearly, they never heard of TOR and secure anonymous browsers. Easy as pie.
Not sure how they expect to find a guy whose only unique description is 'Uses a Syberian Post office'. As far as I can gather, it has something to do with exploiting and forging trusted cross-site requests.

--
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
1. Re:LOLWUT? by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-12-13 19:12 · Score: 1
  
  Uses a Syberian Post Office: No idea what this is, but assuming some software, I'm sure it's downloadable with some searching.
  I'm guessing its a proxy?
2. Re:LOLWUT? by jrumney · 2012-12-13 21:08 · Score: 0
  
  "Siberia Post Office" (actually; shiberia in katakana, yubinkyoku in kanji) seems to be his alias on 2ch.net.
3. Re:LOLWUT? by lightknight · 2012-12-13 23:15 · Score: 2
  
  That's what I'm reading. Someone coded up a redirector in C#. I'm...I'm not even sure that's a crime here. I mean, it's using someone's resources without their knowledge, but either the English-translation is missing some key info, or Japan has a zero-tolerance policy for, what might considered in other parts of the world, an almost minor transgression.
  So, this person setup a redirector, and the Japanese are offering their highest reward for them. Yeah, we're missing something. I mean, the reward is only $36,000, which is, in the grand scheme of things, not much, but, apparently, it is the highest reward they can offer legally. I'm going to assume that they don't do that every day.
  As for the C# language thing...I knew there was something we were missing. I am so used to hearing about C++ / VB.NET viruses that...have we ever had a C# virus before? You get so used to hearing the rain fall, sometimes you do not notice it has stopped, until it starts up again.
  
  --
  I am John Hurt.
4. Re:LOLWUT? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 23:43 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  I'm guessing its a proxy?
  Close. After the Russian Revolution, when Stalin began stuffing Siberia with political dissidants, he realized how late the mail was arriving from those territories, making compliance to Party orders lag. Stalin decreed that the mail will be on time, and a clever Siberian post master adjusted the time stamp at his remote post. The mail from Siberia began to arrive in Moscow in record time, so it seemed. Subsequently, there was a Korean manufacturer that produced a router that, in an effort to speed up packet delivery, actually did time calculations on each packet to reduce apparent delivery time. The company went under, but sold about 200 of these routers, deployed mostly in the southern provinces of Japan. The routers caused all kinds of havoc as emails were time stamped before they arrived and even before they were composed. The routers were all replaced and surplused by 2004, and by now are extremely rare pieces of technology. Sometimes evidence of one of these routers show up in logs at hacking competitions, though they are expressly forbidden. Eventually, network administrators, a poetic bunch, upon finding anamolous log entries, began referring to the individual mystery routers as a "Syberian Post Office."
5. Re:LOLWUT? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-14 03:08 · Score: 0
  
  that redirect was doing bomb threats to elementary schools and the level of sophistication says they may be smart enough to be a real guy trying to blow something up pretty sure the US would react the same way =/
6. Re:LOLWUT? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-14 04:09 · Score: 0
  
  No no no no no no no. Siberia Post Office is a system that lets you to on 2ch when you are blocked by 2ch's IP-based blocking mechanism. See ikaruga's post. (I read Japanese -- ikaruga's translation is accurate.)
Clearly depraved... by CODiNE · 2012-12-13 18:45 · Score: 1

"Japanese police are looking for an individual who can code in C#"
Need I say more?

--
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
1. Re:Clearly depraved... by lightknight · 2012-12-13 23:17 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, that's kind of odd. A C# cracker is...something new for the news.
  
  --
  I am John Hurt.
2. Re:Clearly depraved... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 23:33 · Score: 0
  
  Need I say more?
  Yes say more. What are you getting at? .net to .ASM to VB to CSharp converter?
  Is that the same Siberian Post office I just saw behind 7 chained proxies using a different name?
  Here's how I would mitigate the problem. First off, there's no emergency, everyone quit acting like it.
  I had a school and some punks come to screw with it, I make the site READ ONLY (first day of noticing the problem I LOCK it down), and then if parents/students want to post they make ACCOUNTS which I set the Security level on. Not much different than an old dial up bbs. Join, Validate, set access, then enjoy Files, Messages, Games, or download a QWK packet, ride the Bluewave, or send a FTS-001 crash mail to the zone defenders of fidonet.
  Why does my school "need" (not want) to be online? will static pages do? What school district, don't they have a fucking web infrastructure for schools already? We sure pay them enough.
  I don't excuse the person causing trouble, but the school owns the website, it's mostly their problem. I'll bet two beers they haven't thought more than five minutes on security. No wonder they're cracked.
3. Re:Clearly depraved... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 23:38 · Score: 0
  
  Oh yeah just hit me, totally slipped my mind, the fukushima fallout is exactly what the attacker said. A Mass killing.
  On that note, (cause the shit's falling on me too) a big middle finger to the Japaneese Government.
4. Re:Clearly depraved... by TheCarp · 2012-12-14 03:05 · Score: 1
  
  The artist is not the paint brush. People use what tools are familiar to them.
  
  --
  "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
why haven't they contacted by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:48 · Score: 0

Public Security Section 9?
Cleary I did it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:48 · Score: 0

What they don't know is that 'Syberian Post Office' isn't real and a lot of people would fall under this description. The truth is there is so little risk why bother? Unless your a paranoid individual like me.
I'm surprised by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:52 · Score: 1

The first famous Japanese hacker and his handle isn't "The Laughing Man"
I thought what I'd do was, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 18:55 · Score: 0

I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.
What is "Syberian Post Office" ?? by Taco+Cowboy · 2012-12-13 19:05 · Score: 1

Can someone kindly place a link that explain "Syberian Post Office"?
Thank you !

--
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
1. Re:What is "Syberian Post Office" ?? by Mashiki · 2012-12-13 19:54 · Score: 1
  
  Can someone kindly place a link that explain "Syberian Post Office"?
  Without finding the original article, I've looked on a couple of the JP dailies and I can't find it yet. Only the english version on english sites, I'm going to hazard a guess that it's something *seriously* lost in translation--I'm guessing translated by google, fair warning that google doesn't translate Japanese slang into anything approaching english, so you get weird words like that. And what they're referring to is boards like 2ch there's more than 2ch and futaba though. Which are used by a lot of kids, teens and hikikomori as outlets.
  
  --
  Om, nomnomnom...
2. Re:What is "Syberian Post Office" ?? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 20:18 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Can someone kindly place a link that explain "Syberian Post Office"?
  Thank you !
  2ch sometimes bans IPs from posting. But not all boards on 2ch will share this ban. The "siberian super flash news" () board is one of these that doesn't take into account bans on the system, and so people post on this board and ask others to spread what they posted onto wherever they actually want it to be.
  An extremely simple proxy for posting on 2ch, if you will.
3. Re:What is "Syberian Post Office" ?? by Zemran · 2012-12-13 22:57 · Score: 1
  
  Errr, get out that old dusty book that you used at school called an "Atlas". If you look at Japan you will see that there is a large chunk of land next to it called Russia. The part of Russia that is nearest to Japan is called Siberia. In Siberia they have places that are used for communication including sending letters (they sell stamps) etc. as well as using the internet.... If you want to use the internet anonymously you can use this service like you would a library in the US.
  
  --
  I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
4. Re:What is "Syberian Post Office" ?? by morgauxo · 2012-12-14 02:16 · Score: 1
  
  Ok. Myself, I was quite aware of where Siberia is and what a Post Office is. Here in the US we don't have internet terminals, or at least not ones for the public/customers and I for one do not spend my vacations visiting all the post offices of the many areas of the world. Also, notice the 'y' instead of an 'i' in the summary? I certainly would have guessed this was slang for something before actually thinking they are talking about a post office in Siberia.
5. Re:What is "Syberian Post Office" ?? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-14 13:54 · Score: 0
  
  Whoooosh!
false accusation by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 19:37 · Score: 0

wow, at least they conceded and admitted that they were wrong. :)
The sting by Half-pint+HAL · 2012-12-13 19:54 · Score: 1

What if it's a sting? What if they expect the real culprit to attempt to fit someone else up and take the cash?

--
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
C# ? Hang 'em... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 22:28 · Score: 0

The restarted bantered offspring of java and c++ needs to die a low and painful death.
For all to C and fear.
1. Re:C# ? Hang 'em... by epSos-de · 2012-12-14 12:00 · Score: 1
  
  I would upvote this joke, if I would know how to do it in here !
  
  And also, this guy can hack, he can surf the net without leaving traces, but all he ever wanted is to do some stupid crimes in school ???
  
  He must be real crazy, or the police is not saying the truth, becasue usually the people with those abilities make serious, illegal money, instead of shooting their brains out in schools.
  
  --
  ~ Best man at your service.
Re:Laughing Man by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 22:31 · Score: 0
It wouldn't need to be a rogue agency.
- -Infighting between agencies.
- -One agency stepping on another's counter intelligence operation.
- -An agency falling bait to another (not necessarily perpetrated by other Japanese)
- -Even just one agency running it all to go after someone.
Of course, this all assumes it is even a rabbit hole at all, and not just another ordinary gopher hole.
I had to reread that. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 23:17 · Score: 0

I thought they were recruiting a hacker the first time I read it.
Hell, they likely should recruit them after it since they seem clueless.
Anonymous coward... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-13 23:34 · Score: 0

offers subject/verb agreement.
Seriously, why do so many people forget to conjugate verbs properly for plural subjects any more?
Siberia Post Office by kumanopuusan · 2012-12-14 03:45 · Score: 1

There's a post that explains all the details of how to use the Siberia Post Office here, along with some beautiful ASCII art.
http://www.logsoku.com/r/siberia/1350393984/
It's not an alias.

--
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
The wanted posting was created by the Hacker by backslashdot · 2012-12-14 05:26 · Score: 1

So the hacker's modus operandi is to frame other people? Why do I think that we'll see the hacker frame somebody and then turn that person in for the reward. The reward that the hacker himself created. Twisted. But then so is Orange Juice.