Greater digitalization and geopolitical uncertainties have increased the risk of cyberattacks with systemic consequences for both the public and private sectors. As developing countries embrace more technological solutions, they must prepare to meet the associated risks, including cyberattacks. Achieving cybersecurity requires a solid understanding of the cyber space so that national and subnational governments can make informed choices on policies and strategies that govern cybersecurity and digitalization.
香港六合彩资料 Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) in collaboration with the Digital Development Global Practice organized a Technical Deep Dive (TDD) on Cybersecurity on July 22-26, 2024, in Tokyo. This was the first time TDLC organized a TDD on cybersecurity, a priority area of focus for the Government of Japan.
The TDD brought together managerial and technical cybersecurity professionals from 12 client countries in the East Asia & Pacific and Latin American & Caribbean regions to improve awareness of relevant cybersecurity technologies, policies, trends, and practices, and foster better understanding and collaboration in cybersecurity for both national and local governments. The program included learning and peer exchange sessions as well as site visits, with the participation of 香港六合彩资料 specialists and representatives from Japanese ministries, local governments, quasi-government and research institutions and private companies.
The participants learned about how cybersecurity is addressed at the national level and how national cybersecurity policy is implemented at subnational level. Speakers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) presented how private sector companies in Japan are involved in cybersecurity incident. TDLC invited speakers from Hiroshima Prefecture to present how cybersecurity is addressed at the subnational level and case studies of success incident responses. The Hiroshima Prefecture speakers cited how the series of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks leading up to the 2023 G7 Summit was addressed successfully thanks to the protocols and defenses put in place.
Participants also heard from Yokohama City’s Global Digital Networks Department in charge of digitalizing over 10,000 administrative procedures for the city’s residents. Yokohama City is digitalizing these processes with a cybersecurity-first framework that aims to make the online services secure by design and user friendly. Yokohama City is also hiring technologists across all the departments in Yokohama City to increase the technical capacity of city officers.
12 client countries from the East Asia & Pacific and Latin American & Caribbean regions engaged in discussions on relevant cybersecurity technologies and policies.
Participants discussing and asking questions.
To further facilitate learning on this topic, the Cybersecurity TDD took participants to various site visits. Visits to Little Earth Company (LAC) and Internet Initiative of Japan (IIJ) showed how security operations centers (SOC) can provide governments and companies notification of any malicious activities occurring on their networks and the protocols involved during a cyber incident. Participants also visited the Toshiba’s Research and Development Center, where they learned the mechanics behind operational technology (OT) relating to networks that control critical infrastructure, such as electricity girds, water, or gas utilities. The site visit to the National Institute of Information Communication Technology (NICT) introduced the scanning of darknet, which is unused IP addresses associated with an organization that attackers frequently use as entry points of attack. NICT also illustrated the importance of forging partnerships with other cyber research centers across the world so information regarding attacks can be shared and that the darknet scanning can be specialized for regions or sectors of the economy.
Participants visiting NICT.
At the end of the TDD, participants presented their plans to address the challenge of achieving cybersecurity. Many of the country participants cited training and cyber literacy to be the critical pain point in scaling cybersecurity protocols across all levels of government. Relatedly, the lack of investment for IT system upgrades forces governments to store and process sensitive data in obsolete systems leaving it vulnerable to attacks and data leakages. Compared to markets in Europe or North America, many developing countries have a very nascent cybersecurity market with only a handful of cybersecurity firms and professionals in the field.
Data is the lifeline of organizations and businesses today. When it comes to cybersecurity, prevention is always better than recovery. Data recovery after an attack does not guarantee that all the data can be recovered, and it can pose material reputation risk and financial losses. Many organizations may think of cyber-attacks as a black swan event, but it is certainly a risk that is preventable.
Please view the event photos .