Chief of Cabinet urges the introduction of active cyber defense

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

“Improving our country’s cyber response capabilities is an increasingly urgent and important task,” Hayashi said at a news conference on Tuesday. He added that the government is “accelerating” discussions on the legislation. Regarding the panel of experts, Hayashi said 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 result in an armed attack but could cause security problems for the country or its critical infrastructure.