What the government announced
During an emergency meeting on Monday, Takaichi instructed members of her cabinet to put together a rapid-response package of measures to be completed within a week to address a burst of cyberattacks hitting Japan. She said authorities would choose and deploy a broad slate of responses, including steps to get into hostile systems and disable threats.
She did not spell out specific tools, but told ministers to collect information and share potential risks with experts, businesses and the public.
International coordination and new tools
Takaichi asked cybersecurity minister Toshiharu Furukawa to work with allies, like minded countries and relevant international bodies to track down the origin of the attacks and coordinate a joint response across borders.
A fresh legal framework that became effective less than a month ago authorizes Japan to use active cyber defense - a more proactive approach that identifies and removes emerging threats - and aims to tighten information sharing and integrated defenses between government and industry.
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What happened to companies and what is next
A recent wave of data breaches has hit corporate Japan. In the latest case, GMO Internet Group, an IT services provider, said its foreign exchange trading platform was accessed without authorization, with some customers reporting unfamiliar transactions. On Saturday, the firm asked the government for help in disabling the source of the malicious activity.
GMO Chief Executive Officer Masatoshi Kumagai wrote that the company received a demand for $50 million worth of cryptocurrency as ransom and did not pay. Separately, economy minister Ryosei Akazawa said last week that Japan plans to stand up a team of white hat hackers - vetted professionals who probe systems to find and fix holes.
The bottom line: the emergency measures, the active defense authority and the planned white hat team are all aimed at the current spate of attacks. Global concern about artificial intelligence being used to exploit security gaps is part of the backdrop to these breaches, and any new moves will matter for companies in your portfolio.
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