TOKYO – Japan’s Ministry of Defense plans to increase its cybersecurity staff, including hiring from the private sector, to cope with increasingly sophisticated attacks by China, Russia and others.
At the end of fiscal 2020, there were around 660 such employees in the self-defense forces. The number is to be increased to more than 1,000 by the 2023 financial year.
Cyber attacks traditionally have involved computer viruses that infiltrate networks and steal information, but hackers have become more sophisticated in recent years. US and European companies attempted to contain a ransomware attack on Saturday that hit American IT company Kaseya. This attack, which forced Swedish grocery chain Coop to close all 800 of its stores, followed a similar attack on a US pipeline operator in May. Attacks are also increasing in Japan.
An attack on the SDF’s communications network could disrupt or stop the activities of units stationed across Japan. Classified information related to national defense could also fall into the wrong hands. Such situations would have a significant impact on national security.
The ministry wants to strengthen cyber defense quantitatively and qualitatively.
The 660 cybersecurity workers who protect the common systems for the entire SDF as well as for the air, sea and land forces are to be increased to 800 by the end of the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2022.
A unit overseeing cyber defense across the SDF will be introduced in 2022, consolidating units for each branch to improve efficiency.
A cybersecurity course was introduced to the Ground Self-Defense Force engineering school earlier this fiscal year. This course is designed to train cybersecurity personnel by teaching the basics such as programming languages.
The Department of Defense will also be bringing in outside experts to prepare for increasingly sophisticated attacks. This month the company hired a cybersecurity monitoring consultant from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone and another from major cybersecurity firm LAC. They will work at the ministry two to three days a week but will remain employees of their respective companies.
The NTT Group has more than 300,000 employees. To protect such a large company from cyber attacks, all employees must be aware of the threats and managers and managers must have the appropriate knowledge. The SDF, which employs more than 200,000 people, will consider establishing a training program based on NTT’s expertise in the field.
In addition to current programs in which SDF employees go abroad for training, they learn how to deal with cyber attacks from experts with advanced knowledge and skills.
Although their compensation was not disclosed, the Department of Defense has earmarked 20 million yen ($ 180,000) in the 2021 budget for hiring the advisors.
Japan is also stepping up cooperation with its most important ally, the US. The Maritime SDF conducted cyberattack drills with the U.S. military aboard the helicopter carrier Izumo last month.
“The US Navy is ahead of us,” said Hiroshi Yamamura, MSDF chief of staff. “We were able to share how we do things and what’s behind them, and that was important.”
Warships sail while constantly connected to a network, so any weak point in communications at sea increases the risk of virus infection. A virus can also enter the system through a flash drive used in the maintenance of a ship and, for example, affect the ship’s navigation system.
Japan’s cyber capabilities were rated “Tier Three” by the UK think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies in a report released last month, the lowest on a three-point scale. The report pointed to weaknesses in the area of national security.
China and Russia are increasingly focusing on combining physical attacks by air, sea and land forces with cyber and pulse electromagnetic attacks. China is said to have 30,000 employees in its cyber attack units. This has increased the urgency of the SDF’s efforts to recruit more staff and strengthen the capabilities of its cyber units and work with the US
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/japan-to-bulk-up-cybersecurity-units-for-nations-defense/
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