Japan Govt Panel to Discuss Strengthening Cyber Defense of Telecom Carriers
Amid a recent spate of cyberattacks and personal data leaks, an expert panel set up by the communications ministry will discuss this week how major mobile phone carriers and telecom operators should strengthen their cyber defense measures.
The communications ministry in Japan has established an expert panel to examine ways to enhance the cyber defense capabilities of prominent mobile phone carriers and telecom operators. This comes in the wake of a recent series of cyberattacks and data breaches that exposed personal information.
The panel, consisting of 11 members, including cybersecurity experts and personal information protection specialists, is scheduled to convene for the first time on Thursday. Industry groups, such as the Telecommunications Carriers Association, which includes telecommunications giants NTT and KDDI Corp., will also be invited as observers.
Key areas of discussion for the panel include the identification and remediation of vulnerabilities in telecom carriers' systems, as well as the potential implementation of a system that would allow the ministry to order carriers to suspend services in the event of a significant data breach, thereby limiting further damage.
The panel's efforts are aimed at ensuring that telecom carriers can effectively counter cyber threats that leverage advanced artificial intelligence technology. The panel is also tasked with reviewing the Telecommunications Business Law, with a view to revising the legislation by the summer of the following year. Current provisions in the law lack clear guidelines on how carriers should respond to cyberattacks and associated damages.
Written by urgent.news from The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
