Most notably, the government introduced what it called "active" cyber defense, "for eliminating in advance the possibility of serious cyberattacks that may cause national security concerns to the Government and critical infrastructures and for preventing the spread of damage in case of such attacks, even if they do not amount to an armed attack." In short: identifying the source of a cyberattack early, and defeating it before it can cause serious harm. Together, the two articles of legislation constitute what's referred to as the Active Cyber Defense Bill, which enables the Japanese government to take more aggressive measures to stop cyberattacks before they can cause widespread damage. The passage of the law follows a warning in January from Japan's national police that Chinese state-backed threat actor MirrorFace has been committing wide-scale cyber espionage since 2019 in an effort to steal Japan's national security secrets. Japan is on a mission to catch up to the US standard of national cyber preparedness, and its new legislation is a measure intended to stop escalating Chinese cyber-espionage efforts, experts say. The Japanese government is on a mission to catch up to US national cybersecurity preparedness standards and has just passed bold legislation aimed at bolstering the country's cyber-response capabilities. Roughly speaking, the first half of the Active Cyber Defense Bill defines the more passive changes Japan will implement in its national cyber posture.
This Cyber News was published on www.darkreading.com. Publication date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 02:00:08 +0000