Leaks of Specially Designated Secrets: SDF Shows Serious Lack of Awareness on Protecting Classified Security Info

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:12 JST, April 27, 2024

Legislation is currently being discussed to expand the scope of people required to maintain confidentiality to include private citizens to protect important security information. It is therefore totally unacceptable that some officers of the Self-Defense Forces, the key organ for ensuring the nation’s security, were found to have leaked such information.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said that two cases of leaking specially designated secrets, or classified security i Legislation is currently being discussed to expand the scope of people required to maintain confidentiality to include private citizens to protect important security information. It is therefore totally unacceptable that some officers of the Self-Defense Forces, the key organ for ensuring the nation’s security, were found to have leaked such information.

In the MSDF case, a member who was not qualified to handle specially designated secrets was assigned to work using vessel wake data — information that is labeled as such a secret — while on board a destroyer. The person was exposed to the wake data for about 60 days during a period from June 2022 to January 2023.

The captains of the destroyer at that time and other officers failed to check if the member was authorized to handle specially designated secrets, according to the minister.

In the GSDF incident, meanwhile, a unit commander revealed how the SDF would respond in the event of an emergency to 15 members during a drill in July last year, even though the members were not supposed to know such information labeled as a specially designated secret.

The Defense Ministry claimed that no information leak to outside parties had been confirmed in either case. However, the ministry appears to forget that over the years to come, it will remain vulnerable to the potential of the secrets to spread out even further via the unauthorized members who were exposed to the information.

If specially designated secrets are leaked to outside parties, it could seriously affect the nation’s security. As these secrets include pieces of information entrusted to Japan by its ally and friendly nations, their leakage could considerably undermine the nation’s credibility.

The actions of the senior MSDF and GSDF officers were extremely thoughtless.

Responses by the ministry and the SDF after learning of the leaks are also problematic. Both the MSDF and GSDF cases occurred last year. Why did they take such a long time before revealing the incidents?

Looking at how the cases occurred and what responses were made afterward, it is undeniable that the SDF has been lax in its discipline regarding information management.

In the MSDF, a captain leaked a specially designated secret in 2020 to a retired vice admiral, making it the first case for such information to have been leaked to an outside party.

Following that incident, the ministry announced at the time that it would take thorough measures to prevent a recurrence by, for example, upgrading training programs for protecting information. However, it is simply appalling that similar cases have been repeated.

A bill is currently being discussed in the Diet to establish a security clearance system to protect important information for economic security, under which company employees would be among the individuals subject to government authorization. The bill has already been passed by the House of Representatives.

If enacted, the bill would pave the way for the establishment of a framework to protect critical information in both the public and private sectors. The ministry and the SDF need to be aware that they have a role to play in modeling how to protect confidentiality.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, April 27, 2024)