The Record reports that Japan has enacted a new law that permits the country’s authorities to preemptively engage with adversaries through offensive cyber operations to prevent significant damage to the country:
The new Active Cyberdefense Law mirrors recent reinterpretations of Article 9, providing Japan’s Self-Defence Forces with the right to provide material support to allies under the justification that failing to do so could endanger the whole of the country.
It explicitly allows law enforcement agencies to infiltrate and neutralize hostile servers before any malicious activity has taken place and to do so below the level of an armed attack against Japan, while the Self-Defence Forces will take responsibility for tackling particularly sophisticated incidents.
The new law is intended to enable Japan to “identify and respond to cyber attacks more quickly and effectively” according to Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, who added on Friday that it would help Tokyo “equal or exceed” the cyber capabilities “of major European countries and the US.”
Read more on The Record.
