stopthinkTo 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 after 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 web site to promote the campaign for improving cyber-security 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. With this campaign, we hope 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 Dec 1st 2014) and regions as an international partner member for supporting activities which aim to promote a safe online environment for all internet users.

“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 we can build a safer, more secure and trusted Internet."

By MediaBUZZ