Cambridge, Mass. (BUSINESS WIRE) – To raise cybersecurity and cybercrime awareness in Japan and beyond, the Council of Anti-Phishing Japan (APC) on December 3 launched STOPTHINKCONNECT.jp, the first comprehensive STOP.THINK.CONNECT. National Cybersecurity Awareness campaign website outside of the campaign’s main website – and the first composed entirely in a language other than English.

The launch of STOPTHINKCONNECT.jp culminates nearly a year of development by the Council with a broad group of Japanese and international companies, government agencies and NGOs. These companies have coordinated STOP.THINK.CONNECT.™ cybersecurity awareness messaging on media across Japan since February when the council joined the STOP.THINK.CONNECT. Messaging Convention which curates the global campaign.

The APC’s STOP.THINK.CONNECT.™ (STC) Promotion Working Group developed the new Japanese version of the STC website to promote the campaign for improving cybersecurity awareness in an international partnership with the Messaging Convention.

“We promote this activity, as International Campaign Partners, for the realization of our vision ‘Cyberspace to help anyone in trouble,’ and we have launched the STOP.THINK.CONNECT.™ Japan chapter campaign. We hope this campaign to provide information for many people without prejudice, and assist in the population being able to coexist within cyber space comfortably,” said Leader of the APC working group Shinichi TANKYO of Hitachi Systems.

In the future, the STC Promotion Working Group will promote the campaign with STC messaging assets and identify some issues for this promotion in Japan, and co-operate with 16 countries (as of December 1, 2014) and regions as an international partner member for supporting activities which aim to promote a safe online environment for all internet users.

The APC coalition companies propagate the campaign in Japan through the display of the logo and slogan on corporate websites and even using a dedicated information security websites sponsored by Trend Micro at http://www.is702.jp/partner/183_s/.

Membership Partners participating in the development of the campaign in Japan includes:

• BB Softservice Corp.

• RSA, The Security Division of EMC

• GMO GlobalSign K.K.

• Alps System Integration Co., Ltd.

• Kaspersky Labs Japan

• Hitachi Systems, Ltd.

• SOURCENEXT CORPORATION

• Trend Micro Incorporated

• TOPPAN FORMS CO., LTD.

• Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERT/CC)

STOP.THINK.CONNECT.™ is the global cybersecurity awareness campaign to help all digital citizens stay more secure online, founded and managed by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). The campaign’s message and logo was created by an unprecedented coalition of private companies, non-profits and government organizations. Licensees of the messaging suite, launched in October 2010, include more than 160 institutions. A number of countries have also adopted the campaign including the USA, Canada, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, Malaysia, Dominica as well as Japan.

“The launch of the new campaign website in Japan plants a beacon in East Asia that all of us will remember as one of the milestones in the deployment of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign,” said APWG Secretary General Peter Cassidy, co-founder of the campaign and author of its development plan. “It will serve to remind us all of what we can do as members of a global community, responding to cybercrime together.”

APWG has been working with member institutions from Japan since 2006, presenting a counter-cybercrime conference that drew hundreds of delegates and national media coverage in May 2008. The APC team promoting the STC campaign includes APWG member companies from Japan and enterprises with Japanese presences, including Hitachi Systems, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Labs, and RSA Security (board member of the NCSA) as well as JPCERT/CC, the computer emergency response team of Japan. JPCERT/CC also brokered a 2012 partnership between the convention and the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team, to promote the campaign. APWG Deputy Secretary General Foy Shiver completed the development of the agreement between the Convention and APC in December, 2013.

Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance said, “We applaud the Council of Anti-Phishing Japan for their dedication and commitment to the translation and launch of the entire STOP. THINK. CONNECT. website in Japanese. While many STOP. THINK. CONNECT. resources have been translated into 13 languages, this is the first time the complete website is operational in a language other than English. The problem of cybersecurity is global. Only by working together can we build a safer, more secure and trusted Internet.”

About the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention

STOP. THINK. CONNECT.TM is the first-ever coordinated message to help all digital citizens stay safer and more secure online. The message was created by an unprecedented coalition of private companies, nonprofits and government organizations. The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) and National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) in 2009 led the effort to find a unified online safety message that could be adopted across public and private sectors. The Messaging Convention’s goal is to help every human being on the Internet understand not only the risks that come with using the Internet, but also the importance of practicing safe online
behavior. The convention’s website is at http://stopthinkconnect.org.

ContactsAPWG:
Peter Cassidy, +1-617-669-1123
pcassidy@apwg.org
or
NCSA:
Lisa Tumminello, +1-202-570-7429
lisa@staysafeonline.org
or
STC-JP:
Shinichi TANKYO
Promotion WG Leader
stc-sec@antiphishing.jp
or
STC-JP:
Noriaki HAYASHI
Promotion WG Deputy Leader
stc-sec@antiphishing.jp

Media Contact

Jessica Beffa
Thatcher+Co.
720-413-4938
ncsa@thatcherandco.com