Welcome to episode 2 of CyAN's State of (Cyber) War series.

Today, James Briscoe and John Salomon talk about Japan - its national cyberdefence capabilities, the regional and global threat landscape, regulations and laws, and how all of these are evolving in the face of changing geopolitical realities and technologies.

A few notes from our chat:

02:25 US-Japan 1960 joint security treaty:  https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/n-america/us/q&a/ref/1.html
02:37 Article 9 Japanese constitution:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_9_of_the_Japanese_Constitution
02:45 SCAP:  Supreme commander allied powers
02:58 Japan Self Defense Forces:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Self-Defense_Forces
05:01 2019 US-Japan security treaty update:  https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000470738.pdf
06:54 national security strategy end of 2022:  https://www.cas.go.jp/jp/siryou/221216anzenhoshou/nss-e.pdf
08:14 Lazarus Group:  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/9/us-japan-south-korea-launch-new-efforts-to-counter-n-korea-cyber-threats
10:35 Lazarus Group's cryptocurrency thefts:  https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/12/01/north-korean-hackers-lazarus-group-stolen-3b-in-cryptocurrency/
11:29 https://www.dragonflyintelligence.com/news/japan-shift-to-a-more-offensive-cyber-posture-in-2023/
11:35 https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japan-to-quadruple-cyber-defense-forces-meeting-threats-head-on
12:47 The 2016 revision in question:  https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000143304.pdf
13:37 The spending increase to 2% request:  https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/japan-makes-record-defence-spending-request-amid-tension-with-china-2023-08-31/
13:59 It's actually 2% as well:  https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2023/07/03/defence-spending-sustaining-the-effort-in-the-long-term/index.html
14:39 CCDCOE:  https://ccdcoe.org/
14:46 Locked Shields exercise:  https://ccdcoe.org/exercises/locked-shields/
15:33 The official in question was former US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair:  https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/political-series/20221122-72394/
16:05 The Japanese National Security Strategy allows for development of a posture for information warfare and introduction of active cyber defence in cybersecurity. It will create a government information warfare department, allowing government to aggregate and analyze the situation on disinformation originated abroad.  The National Center for Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity is to be restructured to establish an new organisation to coordinate policies between the police and JSDF. This will allow for active cyber defence against attackers. Training for 4000 cyber ‘warriors’ and 16k cyber-capable JSDF members over 5 years is also foreseen.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans AI to enhance monitoring of information and intelligence analysis. Furthermore, defence industry profit margin will be permitted to increase to a max of 15%.
16:45 The Nagoya port ransomware attack of July 2023:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-06/nagoya-port-delays-restart-following-alleged-ransomware-attack
17:10 The Chinese cyberattack on the Japanese defence network:  
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/08/08/japan/japan-china-hack-defense-network/ - WaPo article:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/07/china-japan-hack-pentagon/
17:23 KillNet ceases attacks on Japan:  https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/09/9846d4bf7aee-pro-russia-hacker-group-stops-cyberattacks-on-japan-due-to-money-woes.html
20:17 2023 Amendments to Telecommunications Business Act:  https://www.dataguidance.com/news/japan-amendments-telecommunications-business-act-enter
20:20 Unauthorized Computer Access Law (UCAL):  https://iclg.com/practice-areas/cybersecurity-laws-and-regulations/japan

James Briscoe on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbriscoe/
John Salomon on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsalomon/

Check out the rest of CyAN's media channels on https://cybersecurityadvisors.network/media - and visit us at https://cybersecurityadvisors.network

Original YouTube video version:  https://youtu.be/Fmuno8ohJPs

Intro/outro music courtesy of AlexiAction via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/alexiaction-26977400/