Today, the Internet is a daily part of life for people of all ages. In 2007, the estimated number of Internet users in Japan exceeded 80 million, and the majority, an estimated 46 million users, were able to connect via broadband. Inter-business communications, various administrative services, and individual financial transactions have become more and more web-based, while the migration to Web 2.0 has seen new uses for the web.
At the same time, the expansion of such network use has created various security issues. One of the two main causes is that users who are not as computer literate have increased and thus are more likely to be victims of misconduct using computers. As a result, they can be unwittingly involved in attacks on others. A second cause is that the systems that support these increasingly sophisticated networks are becoming more and more complex, making it difficult to construct and operate systems free of vulnerabilities or other security issues. Compounding this, the knowledge for attacking such vulnerable networks as well as tools that exploit vulnerabilities are being freely exchanged in public and private forums and markets. If broad, effective countermeasures are not adopted, society may suffer considerable consequences as a result of the continuing weakness of these vulnerable networks. The implementation of security measures will require cooperation between organizations as well as countries.