While the government’s economic remedies are now finally underway, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) isprojecting a 6.2% decrease in real growth for the Japanese economy during fiscal 2009. Clearly, the recession willcontinue for the foreseeable future. According to a survey conducted by the Japan Users Association of Information
Systems, 55% of companies asked forecasted lower IT investment for 2009 as compared to 2008. The survey
indicated an average decrease of 10%; 2009 is shaping up to be a very difficult year for the IT industry.
According to an IDC study, the scope of the so-called cloud computing market (SaaS/PaaS/IaaS) grew at a 19.2%
clip during fiscal 2008 compared to the prior year. Some estimations have this level of growth continuing through2009 and beyond. All indications are that the global economic crisis has convinced companies to opt for IT services
that are provided over the Internet on an as-needed basis. This contrasts with historic practices of developing
proprietary systems, investing in capital equipment, and managing systems in-house. The shift to a pay-per-use
format is an obvious effort to control overall costs, while optimizing the corporate IT environment.
This type of IT services model has been championed more than once in the past; however, we can identify several
reasons as to why the practical implementation of this model is a real possibility today. First, we can point to theadvancement in broadband Internet and stable network services, available at more reasonable prices than ever.
Second, we have seen great strides in computer system virtualization and Web services technologies. Third, thecurrent economic recession is serving as an added impetus for the shift toward a per-use service model.
As these trends continue apace, ensuring safety on the Internet becomes an even more important issue in termsof corporate business continuity. In this sense as well, it is vital to identify and understand the incidents andvulnerabilities that exist under the surface of the Internet cloud. Corporate IT managers need this information to beable to fairly evaluate cloud services provider service levels, and to create policies ensuring the safe use of suchservices.
This whitepaper summarizes technical information related to potential incidents and vulnerabilities that threaten thestable operations of the Internet as a whole, possibly preventing our client firms from using the Internet in safety andconfidence.
This whitepaper consists of information from a survey report conducted over the13 weeks between January 1 andMarch 31, 2009. Here, we offer commentary on the survey results, looking at historical statistical data focused on
SQL injection attacks (a threat to Web services), alerts related to ID and password management (indispensable forusing services over the Internet), and “scareware,” a recent and growing cause of damages.
During the period in question, the ratio of spam observed averaged 81.5% of all emails—remaining an extremely
high percentage. We will explain in this whitepaper that thorough deployment of appropriate control mechanisms on
the part of the sender is an effective action for reducing spam. We will present data to support our conclusions.
IIJ will continue to respond to all manner of incidents and vulnerabilities, actively disseminating information in orderto support the further development of the Internet into a safe and stable part of the social infrastructure, particularly
as the Internet becomes an even more critical component of the infrastructure underlying corporate activities.

AuthorToshiya Asaba
Executive vice president. Member of the WIDE Project. Mr. Asaba joined IIJ in its inaugural year of 1992, becoming involved in backbone construction, routecontrol, and interconnectivity with domestic and foreign ISPs. Asaba was named IIJ director in 1999, and as executive vice president in charge of technicaldevelopment in 2004. Mr. Asaba founded the IIJ Innovation Institute Inc. in June 2008, and he serves concurrently as president and CEO of that organization.
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Executive Summary

Executive Summary