Tokyo police to create dedicated unit against cyberattacks

March 6, 2017

Tokyo- Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department will establish a new division specialized in fight against cyberattacks on April 1, the police decided Monday.

The so-called cyberattack response center, to be set up within the MPD's Public Security Bureau, will be staffed with some 100 officers.

The center will have two deputy chiefs, with one deputy taking charge of public-private cooperation in preventing attack damage from spreading and the other leading investigations into attacks.

Currently, a team of less than 100 officers at the bureau's general affairs section is responding to cyberattacks.

But ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the MPD found it necessary to set up a larger, dedicated unit to reinforce the police's capabilities to cope with the rise of threats to cybersecurity, such as targeted attacks using emails against key infrastructure systems, people familiar with the matter said.

Tokyo will be the first local government in Japan to have an exclusive police division against cyberattacks. Jiji Press