Japan's MIC Loses

Japan muzzles a network security expert attempting to lecture on weaknesses in the national online citizen registry network.

Ejovi Nuwere, chief technology officer of SecurityLab Technologies, was scheduled to give a presentation on security issues related to Juki Net at the PacSec.JP/core04 security conference in Tokyo on Nov. 12.

Instead, just 30 minutes before he was scheduled to go on stage, Nuwere cancelled his talk after officials from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) demanded that he remove a slide from his presentation that outlined his conclusions about the security of Juki Net.

"They have this mentality that if no one knows there is a problem, there is no problem," Nuwere said.

Juki Net is a national network of databases that contain the names and personal details of nearly every person residing in Japan. It has been surrounded by controversy, particularly over security concerns, since even before its launch in 2003.