Welcome to JPCERT/CC office!
Hello, I am Takumi from Global Coordination Division.
Today, I would like to write about visitors to JPCERT/CC from other countries.
JPCERT/CC staffs occasionally visit national CSIRTs and other organizations abroad to strengthen the relationship and make sure that the contact information is up to date.
See also:
- Visit to Id-SIRTII/CC, Indonesia https://blogs.jpcert.or.jp/en/2019/05/visit-to-indonesia---everybody-can-hack-id-sirtiicc.html
- Visit to VNCERT, Vietnam https://blogs.jpcert.or.jp/en/2019/03/visit-to-vietnam-vncert-and-ais.html
In the same way, we have many visitors to our office every year. They are not only from CSIRTs but also from foreign governments, enterprises, and other organizations, and not everyone is necessarily familiar with the missions of national CSIRT. Last week, officials from Kuwait government visited JPCERT/CC office as a part of the cybersecurity training program provided by Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE).
My colleague and I gave a brief introduction of JPCERT/CC’s services and activities, including on-site CSIRT establishment trainings we offer abroad. After the presentation, one of the Kuwait officials asked us why helping another country establish their CSIRT can be beneficial to JPCERT/CC or Japan. This is actually a good question: why JPCERT/CC (or CSIRTs in general) is expected to help other countries even though they are not its constituency?
In the field of cybersecurity, there is a common expression, “Your security is my security.” Since the Internet connects every part of the world, malware and other malicious cyber activities abroad can go across the borders and influence Japan very easily and rapidly. In such cases, JPCERT/CC cannot always take an effective countermeasure if the country from which the attack comes does not have a point of contact for incident handling. Therefore, to mitigate the damages and prevent future security incidents, every country (or economy) should have capability to handle security incidents as well as a point of contact for foreign counterparts. In this way, helping another country establish their national CSIRT can also enhance cyber security of Japan, and the whole world eventually. As a CSIRT, we always do our best to build and maintain relationships with national CSIRTs of other countries no matter what the geopolitical situations between Japan and those countries are like.
At the entrance of our office, there is a large world map with picture panels. This map represents the countries (or economies) where JPCERT/CC experts and lecturers have traveled to provide trainings, workshops, seminars, and/or presentations, or the national CSIRTs they have visited. We have visited all continents……besides Antarctica. Maybe we will reach there as well in the future…?
If you ever have a chance to travel to Tokyo or nearby cities, please let us know and visit our office!
Thanks for reading.
-Takumi Nakano
