Japan to hold large-scale anti-cyberattack drill for 2020 Tokyo Olympics

January 6, 2017

TOKYO- The Japanese government is set to hold a large-scale drill to combat cyberattacks by the end of March ahead of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, government sources said Thursday. The drill is designed to simulate an actual setting and will involve the world's largest virtual network covering thousands of people, they said. The organizing committee and private IT companies are expected to participate in the drill, which is aimed at identifying potential problems. In the 2012 London Olympics, about 200 million unauthorized accesses to the official website were detected and the country's authorities received warnings of a cyberattack on electrical power systems at the opening ceremony. Experts have warned of even more frequent and sophisticated attacks on the Tokyo Games. Participants in the drill will be divided into two teams of "offense" and "defense" in a virtual setting based on a scenario of cyberattacks on the official website, online sales of tickets and Wi-Fi connections. "Cyberattacks are becoming more and more sophisticated every year. By holding the drill from the perspective of attackers, we should be able to detect loopholes in security systems," an official in charge of the drill said. The government is also planning to train "white hat hackers" to finds attackers' weak points to counterattack. The virtual environment was created at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology's experimental facility in Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. Around 80,000 more personnel involved in cybersecurity are said to be needed in Japan and the government plans to recruit talent and develop specialists through the drill. (Kyodo News)