Microsoft helps Japan's cybercops

TOKYO -- Microsoft is providing Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) with early warnings about security threats in order to help the agency battle online crime, Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, said at an Internet security conference in Tokyo Tuesday.

Under an agreement signed in April, Microsoft has been sharing information about security vulnerabilities in its products with the NPA's High-Tech Crime Technology Division, providing a hotline to exchange information on cyberattacks and conducting training to help the division combat online crime, Gates said.

"We are very serious about security and technology is part of the solution. We are working with the police's need to understand software," Gates said.

The information it provides is in line with Microsoft's policy of informing key customers and partners about vulnerabilities in its products before it makes them known to the general public.

Microsoft has been helping the NPA on an informal basis for about a year by keeping the agency up to date on security issues with the company's software, according to Kazunori Ishii, a spokesman for Microsoft in Japan.

With the April agreement, Microsoft informs the NPA about the company's latest patches before they are made public and issued on Microsoft's Web site, he said.

The services it has provided include training about online safety and how to analyze cyberattacks, and are provided to the NPA free of charge, Ishii said.

The move is part of Microsoft's efforts to help police agencies crack down on online crime, Gates said.

Phishing and online threats to children from chatrooms are serious crimes that Microsoft must work with national governments and police forces around the world to solve, he said.

Phishing is a form of online identity theft that often uses spoof e-mails and fraudulent Web sites to lure people into disclosing personal financial data such as credit card numbers and passwords.

The agreement with the NPA follows a move announced by Microsoft in April, when it said it had worked with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to develop a system to help fight the exploitation of children online.

"We want [to promote] the ability to track down criminals on an international basis," Gates said.