The SC2000 block cipher has a 128-bit block size and a user key of 128,192 or 256 bits,which employs a total of 6.5 rounds if a 128-bit user key is used.It is a CRYPTREC recommended e-government cipher in Japan.In this paper we address how to recover the user key from a few subkey bits of SC2000,and describe two 4.75-round differential characteristics with probability 2-126 of SC2000 and seventy-six 4.75-round differential characteristics with probability 2-127.Finally,we present a differential cryptanalysis attack on a 5-round reduced version of SC2000 when used with a 128-bit key; the attack requires 2125.68 chosen plaintexts and has a time complexity of 212575 5-round SC2000 encryptions.The attack does not threat the security of the full SC2000 cipher,but it suggests for the first time that the safety margin of SC2000 with a 128-bit key decreases below one and a half rounds.