WLAN run

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 11:18:53 +0000

Something I forgot to post last week.

I was in the back of a taxi at about 3am going from Tokyo Station to my place in Setagaya-ku - a trip of about 15km - and I had my laptop with me, so I thought I’d just run Net Stumbler, and see what wireless networks were around. I haven’t gone through the results in any great amount of statistical analysis, but the basic results were: 81 networks - about 40% were 54Mb ones, a similar percentage have no security (not even WEP!), and the most popular brand seemed to be Buffalo (Melco?). Also, it seems that most SSIDs are set to a MAC address, and either people don’t change them, or they try to give them ‘anonymous’ names. OK, I know this post should carry a geek warning, but I’ll try to get some accurate stats up, and post them on brightblack, just out of curiosity.

Softbank database

Sun, 29 Feb 2004 18:55:01 +0000

This story on the excellent Register website was a bit scary - Softbank Japan admit they may have released 4,500,000 currenty and former customers of the YahooBB! service details to other parties. Maybe not credit card details, but pretty much everything else. The most bizarre aspect is, it was most likely an inside job, and some people are even using the words ‘blackmail’ and ’extortion’. It turns out that 130 people had access to that database, and over 90 were temp staff - of course, many others may have shared logins.

As a gesture, Softbank will give all those affected, a 500 yen gift voucher.

For those who live outside Japan, YahooBB!s strategy is to hand out free modem routers on street corners in bright red bags - if you don’t like the service, you just send it back. This is how YahooBB! got so many names and addresses.

I don’t know why, but this makes me think quite a lot about the sokaiya rackets of the mid/late nineties. It has to be said that there are still some people getting away with big things.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Gen Kanai — 2004-03-09

Hey Graham, nice blog! I’m not sure if you are aware of it, but we have a nice mailing list of bloggers in Japan as well as a webring. We meet up once a month in Tokyo. Would love to have you join us!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JapanBloggers/ http://www.souzouzone.jp/japanbloggers/

Security on Nanikore

WLAN run

Softbank database

Original Comments