Govt Doubles Number of Staff at Cybersecurity Center; Govt Software Now Being Checked Round-the-clock

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, July 3, 2024

The government has expanded its cybersecurity center, doubling the number of employees to about 190 and increasing the number of leadership positions with a view to introducing an active cyber defense.

The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity aims to strengthen response capabilities and the chain of command before deploying a new system for preventing serious cyber-attacks.

The center previously had four executives. Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary Atsuo Suzuki served as the center’s chief executive, and there were also one department chief-level officials and two division head-level official.

As of Monday, the center had a vice minister-level official, two bureau chief-level officials, three department head-level officials, and nine division chief-level officials, for a total of 16 senior officials, with Suzuki as the center’s chief executive.

For the bureau chief-level positions, Cabinet Secretariat Councillor Yoichi Iida was appointed as deputy chief executive of the center, and Cabinet Secretariat Councillor Seiji Koyanagi was appointed as its director general.

The center was also reorganized internally from 12 groups to five to consolidate information and promote collaboration.

Center operations have expanded rapidly, with the launch this month of round-the-clock inspections of software used by central government ministries and agencies.