JAPAN COMPUTER PC DATA PROTECTION A GROWTH INDUSTRYasahi.com : EnglishProtecting PC data a growth industry
The Asahi Shimbun
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Protecting corporate secrets and customer information in the digital age is a key issue businesses are struggling to get a handle on.

Worrisomely, many leaks are occurring not as a result of crafty hackers or shifty employees but through loss or theft of the information stored on laptop computers used by staff away from the workplace.

The trend has become so alarming that companies will be bound by law to prevent leakage of personal information from next spring.

That spells opportunity for personal computer manufacturers and related firms such as software makers, which are already shopping around their anti-theft technologies, including those based on integrated-circuit cards, fingerprints and encryption.
In March, Citizen Watch Co. plans to market a security system that automatically locks a computer when the user moves away from it.

Known as CertifGate, the system consists of a nameplate that serves as a wireless, electronic key and a base unit that connects to the PC through a USB cable. The base unit, outfitted with an antenna, can wirelessly locate the authorized user in a range of up to 3 meters.

When the user steps away from the computer, the base unit automatically starts the screen saver and locks the keyboard and mouse to prevent other people from viewing onscreen data or accessing data stored in the computer.

Fujitsu Ltd. in October marketed a notebook computer that identifies authorized users through FeliCa noncontact IC card technology.

In order to be booted up, the FMV-Lifebook NA/L requires that a valid IC card be held over the computer. The reader can be configured to work with FeliCa-based employee ID cards.

Developed by Sony Corp., the FeliCa format is best known as the technology behind East Japan Railway Co.'s Suica passenger ticket cards.

Fujitsu also sells a biometrics system that identifies people by scanning their fingerprints. The company says it has seen a sharp rise in the number of inquiries for the system, which debuted in 2000.

Hitachi Software Engineering Co. offers a computer ID program that scans the pattern of finger veins.

Encryption technology has become a popular response to a different kind of computer data theft: namely, the reading of hard disks physically removed from stolen computers.
Encryption software scrambles the data, making it unreadable by those who do not have the digital key.

Macnica Networks Corp. says sales of encryption software developed by Dutch company Control Break International BV tripled in the July-September quarter from a year earlier.

As the local agent of the Dutch firm, the Yokohama-based company started selling SafeBoot software to domestic PC makers in November 2001.

Still, while most corporations are aware of the problem, a recent survey by IT-related market research firm Gartner Japan Ltd. suggests that surprisingly little has been done to combat it.

About half of the 693 company employees polled said their companies had no in-house restrictions regarding the removal of computers from the office.

Twenty-one percent of the respondents said their firms had no guidelines. Another 24.2 percent said their firms had written guidelines, but special permission was not required to take computers out of the offices.

In addition, 6 percent said they didn't know whether such guidelines were in place or not.

The law concerning protection of personal information was put into effect in May 2003, but it only covered personal information handled by the national and local governments.

Stipulations regulating private-sector entities handling information on 5,000 people or more are scheduled to go into effect in April.

Under the law, companies will be prohibited from using personal information for purposes other than those the person is notified of beforehand and be required to obtain the approval of individuals before they offer their data to a third party. Offenders will be punished with imprisonment of up to six months and a fine of up to 300,000 yen.(IHT/Asahi: November 23,2004