Japan Seeks Help in Cybersecurity

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Japan will be hosting the 2019 Rugby World Championship and the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, global events that are likely to attract attention from hostile cyber actors aiming for publicity, strategic advantage, and criminal profit. Addressing the growing number of cybersecurity risks, Japan is turning to the help of the private sector.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense is set to outsource part of its cybersecurity operations to the private sector to bypass training needs for its own staff, sources close to the ministry said.

The move comes amid intense competition with friendly and other nations to develop capabilities that allow them to enter foreign systems while also addressing the growing number of cybersecurity risks Japan faces, according to japantimes.co.jp.

The ministry, which is looking to increase personnel at its cyberthreat units, will include the outsourcing plan in a mid-term defense program from next April, the sources said.

It plans to hire contractors for work related to responding to cyber attacks, including analyzing malware and introducing artificial intelligence to interpret attacks, the sources said. The ministry also plans to allow personnel from the private sector to join the Self-Defense Forces on short-term contracts at the cybersecurity units.

It was already in July 2017 that the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) considered increasing the number of soldiers in its Cyber Defense Unit (CDU) from around 110 to 1,000 and establishing a new working group to study cyberwarfare techniques, according to thediplomat.com.

Promoting cooperation in the field of cybersecurity was one of the topics during the recent meeting between the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu.