this figure far surpasses the number of cases in which the administrators were Internet service providers. This is believed to have happened because the viruses were targeting non-ISP companies, which were late to remedy their security holes. In 2001 the number of arrests related to Internet fraud grew sharply to 103—about double the previous year's figure. Of these arrests, about 60% were related to Internet auctions. In another problem area, spam (unwanted e-mail) to cell phones, the total number of complaints reached 140,000 in June 2001, but thanks to e-mail address changes and blocking features, this figure had dropped to about 60,000 by November of that year. Meanwhile, on Web-based bulletin boards, distribution of information that infringes on other users' rights (for example, libel) has become a problem. In one recent court case, a company applied for a provisional injunction to force a bulletin-board administrator to delete defamatory material that had been published about the company on the bulletin board, and in August 2001 the Tokyo District Court issued a judgment ordering the administrator to delete the material. Problems exist in other areas too. For example, there has been a succession of cases in which mistakes in companies' operations have resulted in leakages of client or employee data over the Internet. The situation calls for drastic remedial measures such as privacy policies.

## Users' Needs for Security and Privacy

Though increasingly widespread use of the Internet is viewed as something that will make people's lives richer and more convenient, this progress could potentially be obstructed by citizens' anxieties and dissatisfactions, as well as their inadequate knowledge, about Internet use. The anxiety most often cited by Internet users about e-commerce is "Will my credit-card number or personal information be leaked to third parties?"; this concern was cited by 77.7% of users surveyed. The next most common concerns are "Will the product design and outer appearance really be the same as represented on the screen?" and "Will the product I have purchased arrive safely?"; the proportion of users citing these concerns added up to over 50%. These findings suggest that Internet users are still very anxious about sending personal data over electronic networks and about the reliability of on-line transactions. Computer viruses are also a major concern. About 70% of survey respondents who use the Internet 20 hours a week or more said they had encountered computer viruses during 2001, and this proportion was about 50% even among people using the Internet less than 20 hours a week. Although many users say they take countermeasures against computer viruses by using unitvirus software and updating their pattern files, 15.1% of survey respondents said they "don't do anything special" to guard against viruses; the Internet population is still believed to be at great risk for computer viruses. (Exhibit 1-32). Another source of user dissatisfaction is nuisance e-mail, also known as spam. Three out of four users report having received nuisance e-mail of some kind. The most frequently cited content of this mail is advertisements for on-line personal encounter sites.

Companies, having experienced the menace of unauthorized access, are believed to be addressing their security concerns in a variety of ways. Indeed, companies are more likely to add to the problems affecting Internet users than to be affected by these problems themselves. Care must be taken to ensure that company operations such as conducting e-commerce, using consumers' personal information, and advertising via e-mail do not cause problems for society at large. About 60% of companies engaged in on-line consumer business (including e-commerce) are taking measures of some kind to protect consumers' personal information. Specifically, the measures most often cited are "devising privacy policies," "designating employees to be responsible for managing personal information," "revamping systems and organizations," and "limiting personal data to the bare minimum needed." But although these accounted for a relatively large share of steps being taken by companies in this area, less than 30% of the companies surveyed are actually implementing them.

When companies and local government were surveyed to determine what kinds of countermeasures they were implementing to prevent unauthorized access, it was found that local public bodies lag behind companies in terms of implementing such measures. While implementation of anti-virus tools and firewalls has reached a high level, measures other than those are being implemented by only 30–40% of companies and only 10–20% of local governments. A particularly weak area for local governments is security policies; while 43.3% of