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@ 2013/01/08An anonymous hacker has let the cat out of the bag, stringing the Japanese authorities along with a series of clues that ended up with them finding a memory card attached to a feline's collar.
A hacker sent threats to places across Japan including schools and a kindergarten, using a number of computers around the country. For months, the police were puzzled and were not able to track the sources.
Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) was caught chasing its tail. According to AFP, at one point, the NPA forced so-called confessions from four people who were totally innocent and had nothing to do with the emails.
Newspapers and broadcasters later received a set of riddles on New Year's Day, apparently for the eyes of the police. One newspaper, the Sankei Shimbun, reported the email wrote of "an invitation to a new game", as well as claiming the existence of a new computer virus - hidden on a cat somewhere near Tokyo.
Within the emails were a number of quizzes, promising reporters that they were on to a big scoop - and the answers appeared to lead towards a mountainside just outside of Tokyo. When police finally found the cat, they also found the memory card.
No one is quite clear on the purpose behind the messages just yet, but the authorities believe the culprits believe the original messages are related to those that led detectives to finding the card carrying cat.
A hacker sent threats to places across Japan including schools and a kindergarten, using a number of computers around the country. For months, the police were puzzled and were not able to track the sources.
Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) was caught chasing its tail. According to AFP, at one point, the NPA forced so-called confessions from four people who were totally innocent and had nothing to do with the emails.
Newspapers and broadcasters later received a set of riddles on New Year's Day, apparently for the eyes of the police. One newspaper, the Sankei Shimbun, reported the email wrote of "an invitation to a new game", as well as claiming the existence of a new computer virus - hidden on a cat somewhere near Tokyo.
Within the emails were a number of quizzes, promising reporters that they were on to a big scoop - and the answers appeared to lead towards a mountainside just outside of Tokyo. When police finally found the cat, they also found the memory card.
No one is quite clear on the purpose behind the messages just yet, but the authorities believe the culprits believe the original messages are related to those that led detectives to finding the card carrying cat.
