The Cyber Affairs Bureau and the National Cyber Unit of the National Police Agency, which were established on April 1 last year to deal with increasingly serious cybercrimes, have started to produce results by promoting international cooperation.
After the two organizations worked with overseas investigative organizations, information provided by them has led to the prosecution of suspects in some cases. They have also been effective in tracking criminal proceeds held in crypto-assets, which the police previously had difficulty dealing with. An NPA official said, "We want to produce results one by one."
In May this year, the U.S. Justice Department charged a Russian man with using ransomware, a computer virus that encrypts data and denies their owners access to it unless a ransom is paid, in cyberattacks against police and other authorities in Washington.