Initial Disclosure Date: Feb 6, 2013

The first government-sponsored national CTF tournament was held in Tokyo between February 2nd and 3rd. ^{(footnote:ⅰ)} The government had never hosted this kind of hacking contest because they were afraid to encourage malicious crimes. However, as the number of cyber crimes and APTs is increasing, the government recognized the urgent necessity to recruit and hire white hackers.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry outsourced NRI Secure Technologies, Ltd. an information security company based in Tokyo, and first held local CTF tournaments in four cities --- Fukuoka, Osaka, Sendai, and Tokyo --- between last November and December, and 46 teams with 166 people including graduate students and information security practitioners participated. The national tournament invited nine teams out of the 46. The government plans to hold CTF again next year.

Sources:

1. NHK News “White Hacker ikusei he kontesuto [Contest to recruit and cultivate white hackers],” February 3, 2013,
   http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20130203/k10015265031000.html

• The website of the CTF Challenge Japan 2012,
  http://ctf-challenge.jp/
• Yomiuri Shimbun, “’Seigi no hakka’ zenkoku taikai, Akiba de udedameshi [National tournament for white hackers at Akihabara, Tokyo],” February 4, 2013,
  http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/net/news/20130204-OYT8T00243.htm

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