The Cabinet approved two bills on "active" cyberdefense security Friday, paving the way for Japan to acquire preemptive capability against cyberattacks — often referred to as the “Achilles’ heel” of Japan’s defense system.
The new measures aim to strengthen cooperation and facilitate information-sharing between public and private actors in the cyber realm, allowing the government to acquire information traveling through Japan and infiltrate the sources of cyberattacks in order to neutralize them.
A recent spike in cyberattacks — which originate from foreign sources in 99% of cases, according to government data — has prompted legislative action with the goal of setting a framework to protect critical infrastructure, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters Friday.
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