This article describes the information security policies and institutions of the Japanese government and draws attention to comparable policies and institutions of the U.S. government. We begin with a discussion of Japan’s cybersecurity system. In Part II, we examine a particular type of information security policy, namely, cryptography policy, as a special example of how the different systems operate. Japan has implemented a cryptography policy that draws extensively on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Cryptography Policy Guidelines. These guidelines are discussed to highlight issues that might emerge in the future in cryptography and merit attention at an international level. Part III analyzes anti-bot policy. Bots, an increasing concern on the Internet, break into an individual user’s PC and remotely control it. Bots pose a real problem for many nations, and there is clearly a need for multinational cooperation. This article concludes by suggesting that all involved parties must determine the appropriate extent of lawful access to communications. Moreover, cooperation in eliminating bots provides a good opportunity for Japan and the United States to lead an international effort.
Tag Archives: Surveillance
The Past, Present, and Future of Cybersecurity
The cyber threat is the most pervasive and pernicious threat facing the United States today. Its mention does not immediately conjure visions of the catastrophic horrors that would result from an attack using a weapon of mass destruction, but today’s cyber threat is a very real and present danger. As of September 14, 2009, more than 10,450,000 U.S. residents had been victimized by identity theft in 2009 alone, and that number increases by one victim each second.2 Fifteen million victims will lose more than fifty billion dollars each year.3 Specific threats such as identity and consumer fraud allow us to quantify and understand part of the cyber threat in terms that allow the U.S. government,4 corporate America,5 consumer groups, and individuals6 to take preventive action. However, the growing number of victims would clearly suggest we have not effectively solved the problem, even if we are starting to comprehend its scope.
The cyber threat to U.S. national security, economic security, and public health and safety is far more amorphous and less susceptible of comprehension than its kinetic analogs. Popular media productions such as 247 and Live Free or Die Hard8 have depicted sophisticated cyber intrusions that intentionally caused aircraft collisions, a nuclear power plant meltdown, a compromise of White House security and communications…
Cybersecurity and Freedom on the Internet
Cybersecurity has become a national imperative and a government priority. Increased cybersecurity will help protect consumers and businesses, ensure the availability of critical infrastructures on which our economy depends, and strengthen national security. However, cybersecurity efforts must be carefully tailored in order to preserve privacy, liberty, innovation, and the open nature of the Internet.2 To design an effective and balanced cybersecurity strategy, each part of the country’s critical infrastructure3 must be considered separately. Solutions that may be appropriate for the power grid or financial networks may not be suitable for securing the public portions of the Internet that constitute the very architecture for free speech essential to our democracy. Policy toward government systems can be much more prescriptive than policy toward private systems. The characteristics that have made the Internet such a success – its openness, its decentralized and user-controlled nature, and its support for innovation and free expression – may be put at risk if heavy-handed policies are enacted…