Chief Cabinet Secretary Urges Need to Introduce Active Cyber Defense

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:54 JST, May 7, 2024

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday announced the government’s intention to set up an expert panel to begin full-fledged deliberations on the introduction of “active cyber defense” to prevent serious cyber-attacks by infiltrating into the attacking party’s servers.

“Improving our nation’s cyber response capabilities is an increasingly urgent and important task,” Hayashi said at a press conference on Tuesday. He added that the government is “accelerating” discussions concerning the legislation. Regarding the expert panel, Hayashi said that the government will make every effort to hold its first meeting as soon as possible.

The government aims to establish a system that can eliminate in advance any threat of a serious cyber-attack that does not lead to an armed attack but could cause security concerns for the country or its critical infrastructure.