The Japan Hacker Association’s representative director, Takayuki Sugiura, explained why white hat hackers such as theirs are being recruited to counter anime piracy internationally. In a new interview with The Sankei Shimbun, Sugiura says that the association receives requests from CODA, Japan’s leading anti-piracy organization. Their members then investigate the background and identities of pirate site operators, which has led to actual criminal convictions.
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As white hat hackers, the Japan Hacker Association operates within the confines of the law. They find information leaked onto public records (through OSINT/Open Source Intelligence methods), such as registration details when pirate sites make websites, or connection leaks that may reveal where pirates are operating from.
“It costs money to create a website, so there must be some social connection somewhere,” Sugiura says, adding, “There are surprisingly many operators who have flaws.” The Japan Hacker Association has been supporting CODA since 2022; a report from Yomiuri Shimbun confirmed that the increasingly advanced methods to evade Japanese scrutiny (such as geoblocking, domain hopping, and reverse proxying) prompted CODA to reach out to the organization. The unit began with five members. At the time, Sugiura said they were able to identify anime piracy site operators in 80% of cases.
Source: The Sankei Shimbun
Featured image via You Wouldn’t Edit a Meme
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