Japan announced a 1-billion yen ($6.7 million) cyber defense project to integrate locally-developed security software into government computers by 2025.
The platform will be compatible with Microsoft security software installed in most of the covered devices, according to a report by Nikkei Asia.
The step is expected to “boost collection and analysis” of cyber attacks and improve countermeasures against potential threats.
The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ National Institute of Information and Communications Technology arm will base the system on local software architecture and deliver the solution in March 2024.
Latest Cyber Attacks Against Japan
Tokyo has seen an increase in cyber attacks on the government in recent months.
Japan’s National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC), a segment responsible for tracking malicious threats and unauthorized access to government agencies, found in August that its email system had been compromised.
The breach may have leaked personal data included in emails. China-backed cyber criminals were fingered as suspects in the incident.
Last year, more than 20 online platforms from four ministries and agencies were compromised. A pro-Russian hacker group called KillNet, which gained notoriety during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, claimed credit for the attack.
The group was included in a multinational intelligence advisory on Russia-backed cyber threats to critical infrastructure on April 2022.
Teaming With US
In September, the NISC and the Japan National Police Agency partnered with US counterparts to publish a joint advisory on a separate cyber actor targeting routers.
Tagged as BlackTech, the China-linked group attacks router firmware undetected and changes domain trust relationships within an organization’s network.
Most BlackTech attacks were recorded from government to telecommunication sectors across the US and East Asia.
