Japan Govt Adopts Bill to Introduce Active Cyberdefense

   Tokyo, Feb. 7 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government, at a cabinet meeting Friday, adopted a bill to introduce active cyberdefense, or pre-emptive action against cyberattacks.
   The bill calls for enabling authorities to obtain and analyze communications in normal times and break into attack sources to render threats harmless.
   In consideration of the constitutionally guaranteed confidentiality of communication, the bill includes a provision to create an independent organization to check the government's operations.
   "Concerns over sophisticated cyberattacks are growing rapidly, and improving response capabilities is an urgent task," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference Friday. He also said that the bill ensures consistency between the introduction of active cyberdefense and the protection of the confidentiality of communication.
   The monitoring targets are communications between Japan and other countries as well as between foreign countries via Japan. From the obtained information, mechanical information such as IP addresses is extracted in an automatic method without human involvement. For privacy protection, contents related to the essence of communications, such as the text of emails, will be deleted.

(2025/02/07-14:39)

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