Tag Archive for: Tokyo

Tokyo risks being carried away by intel craving

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during his news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on February 24, 2023. [Photo/Agencies]

The reforms implemented by Tokyo over the past 10 years have seen a break with the so-called postwar Yoshida Doctrine that emphasized concentrating resources on economic development and letting the US take care of the country’s security.

By bolstering its capacity for decision-making and removing some of the legal constraints on the use of force, Tokyo has positioned itself for a more integrated military alliance with the US while giving itself room to act in what it perceives to be its interests.

Japan released three documents last year that defined its change of security policy. With a sharp increase in military spending, the most significant take-away from the three documents is the US-Japan alliance is entering a new phase. With its own combat-credible forces, Japan will be proactively involved in international security affairs.

Since war-fighting requires a much higher level of information acquisition and analysis, as well as information sharing between militaries, to better enable this new approach, Japan is looking to strengthen its intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities by building an intelligence network in the Asia-Pacific. It has been proposed that Japan should be included in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group that comprises Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the US, and the plan to set up a NATO liaison office in Tokyo was aimed at facilitating this.

But with that plan stalled, due to the opposition of some NATO members, the Fumio Kishida government has been prompted to take a new tact.

According to Japanese media reports, it intends to build an intelligence network to deal with cyberattacks with countries and regions in the “Indo-Pacific” region. It will begin by building cyber defense capabilities for vulnerable Pacific Island countries, and eventually establish a system that can share information about the symptoms and methods of attacks. This has in part been prompted by the hybrid warfare in Ukraine, where cyberspace…

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Tokyo ahead: Quad’s moment in the sun arrives

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The major takeaway from the Quad Summit in Tokyo will be the formal launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) by US President Joe Biden, with the other Quad countries.

 

New Delhi: China and Russia will be the twin elephants in the room when the leaders of the United States, India, Japan and Australia gather in the Japanese capital on 24 May for their second in-person summit. The fourth Quad summit will be taking place at a conflicted moment in world politics when the international order is being assailed and challenged from South China Sea to South Pacific islands and from Ukraine to Myanmar, making uncertainty the only certainty in the world today.
For the four-nation grouping, it will be a time for stock-taking as well as looking ahead as they pool in their collective strength to shape a rules-based international order, “undaunted by coercion,” and unveil a new paradigm of how democracies can deliver global public good more effectively. The summit is expected to culminate in a concrete roadmap that will help cement a free, open and inclusive world order, configured by collective global aspirations for peace and stability.
In the recent years, Quad’s progress has been nothing short of dramatic. The grouping nearly died over a decade ago in the face of Chinese pressure tactics, but its quiet resurrection in 2017 in Manila with a meeting of senior officials of the four countries set in process a chain of events which has led to the Quad’s current moment under the sun. In a short-span of over a year, this quartet of liberal democracies, spanning three continents, has scripted a transformative agenda built around vaccines, supply chains, cyber security and emerging technologies. By building on the outcomes of the last three summits—two virtual and one in-person (Washington)—the Tokyo meeting of the leaders is expected to deepen the economic and geopolitical content of the grouping.
On the geopolitical front, the Ukraine crisis will be a contentious issue, especially in view of India’s assertion of its strategic autonomy vis-à-vis its special relations with Russia. There will be renewed pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi…

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Tokyo 2020 – ‘The athlete requested our protection’ – IOC on ‘safe and secure’ Belarusian Krystsina Tsimanouskaya

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Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has spent the night in an airport hotel in Tokyo, with an International Olympic Committee (IOC) official saying she is “safe and secure” after she alleged her team tried to force her to board a flight home.

The sprinter was due to take part in Monday’s heats for the 200m, but having publicly criticised her coaches, she claims Belarus’ head coach turned up at her room on Sunday and told her to pack her bags.

The country is currently subject to financial sanctions from the UK, European Union and USA over human rights abuses under the leadership of president Alexander Lukashenko. His son, Viktor Lukashenko, is head of the Belarus Olympic Committee.

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The national team said in a statement that Tsimanouskaya had been removed from competition because of her “emotional, psychological state” but the athlete says she will not return home.

“She assured us and has assured us that she feels safe and secure,” said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams.

She spent the night at an airport hotel in a safe and secure environment, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 will continue their conversations with her and the Japanese authorities to determine the next step in the upcoming days.

“We’re talking again to her this morning to understand what those next steps could be, what she wants to pursue and we will give her support in that decision. She is in the hands of the authorities at the moment. We have also asked the Belarus NOC for a full written report.

“What I can tell you is that the athlete requested our protection at Haneda Airport, which is why we were able to understand that she was there, and obviously the Tokyo 2020 staff members were there. That’s exactly why we were able to find her there, and no more than that.”

While diplomatic relations between Belarus and the rest of the world are currently shaky, it is the same situation between the country and the IOC, which does not recognise the election of Viktor Lukashenko.

“In terms of whether we’ve done enough, this is a story that’s been going on now with Belarus institutionally now for…

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Tokyo Olympics could be threatened by cyberattack, FBI warns

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The Olympics are ripe for cyberattacks by nation-state actors, the FBI said in a notification to cybersecurity professionals, adding that these actors could hack or ransom sensitive stolen data.

The games provide an opportunity for state-backed actors to “sow confusion…and advance ideological goals,” the FBI said in a statement.

In its notification, the FBI cited the potential for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks – where computers are rendered unavailable to an organization – targeting TV broadcasters, hotels, mass transit, ticketing services and event security infrastructure as a possibility.

TOKYO OLYMPICS: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE 2020 GAMES

DDoS attacks are often part and parcel of ransomware.

Some attacks have already happened. In June, Japan’s Kyodo News reported that information was leaked from a data sharing tool developed by Japanese IT company Fujitsu. The breach involved Japan’s national cybersecurity center which was preparing for potential cyberattacks during the games, Kyodo said.

Olympic meddling from state actors would not be unprecedented. The FBI indicted Russian cyber actors for hacking into computers supporting the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, culminating in a cyberattack targeting the Opening Ceremony.

And the FBI notification comes in the wake of a joint advisory from The National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI about an active malicious cyber campaign being carried out by the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) targeting hundreds of U.S. and foreign organizations in order to penetrate government and private sector networks.

“GRU continues to be a threat…The scale, reach and pace of their operations is alarming,” a spokesperson from cybersecurity firm Check Point Software told Fox News.

BIDEN TELLS PUTIN TO ‘DISRUPT’ RANSOMWARE GROUPS OPERATING OUT OF RUSSIA

Against a backdrop of global cyber warfare, the usual suspects could be active.

“Given the ongoing rise in temperatures of the ‘Cyber Cold War,’ it is likely that we will see many of those previously linked with recent high profile cyberattacks – such as Russia, China, REvil and other organized groups,”…

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