Japan to Form Ethical Hacking Unit Within METI to Combat Cyber Threats
Japan's industry minister Ryosei Akazawa announced the creation of an ethical-hacking team inside the Innovation Platform Agency to address recent cyber intrusions and data leaks.
Industry minister Ryosei Akazawa revealed that Japan will launch a dedicated team of ethical hackers within the Innovation Platform Agency, which reports to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The unit, set to start operations next month, is intended to counter a surge of unauthorized access incidents and data leaks affecting government and corporate systems. Recent discoveries of vulnerabilities in the widely used PHP programming language forced the temporary suspension of some ministry webpages and corporate services as a precaution.
Akazawa described a systemic weakness in the nation's cyber-defence posture and said the new team will identify and remediate security gaps across the sector. To raise awareness, the ministry has already briefed roughly 1,000 industry organisations and associations about the PHP problem.
Why it matters
Strengthening cyber defenses helps protect Japan's public services and businesses from growing digital threats.
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