Although the government decided to effectively exclude Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., both major Chinese manufacturers of telecommunications equipment, from procurement contracts starting in April next year, loopholes still remain in the nation's defense against rapidly growing security risks, such as the leakage of secret information and cyber-attacks.
On cusp of 5G era
"To ensure cybersecurity, it's crucial not to purchase devices or systems that contain malware," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference Friday, emphasizing the significance of the government's new procurement policy, which takes into account security risks.
There has been concern within the government for the past few years over the rise of Chinese companies. In June last year, China implemented the National Intelligence Law, which requires Chinese people, companies and others to cooperate with the state's intelligence activities, leading to growing anxiety in Japan.
"Companies and the central government will be more integrated," a senior official at the Cabinet Secretariat said.
The 5G next-generation mobile network technology will be put into practical use soon, so the government created an expert team under the Prime Minister's Office this summer and started full-fledged preparations for the new policy behind closed doors. The policy was formulated at the last possible moment so as to exclude Chinese companies from the 5G market, according to sources close to the government.
Confusion occurs easily
What kinds of threats are posed by malware?
"Multiple attacks can make an attacked country more fragile. It's not very difficult to throw social life into confusion," said Toshifumi Kokubun, director of Tama University's Center for Rule-making Strategies.
By embedding malicious programs and chips called "backdoors" in information-communication devices during their manufacturing process, it is possible to communicate with such devices from the outside even after they are completed. This makes it easy to do things like wiretap conversations by senior government officials with smartphones and steal health data on important persons by accessing hospital information systems, according to Kokubun.
Owning a mobile phone base station where various information is exchanged will drastically increase the amount of information that can be obtained. Huawei alone has a more than 13 percent share in base stations in Japan. In addition to obtaining information, it is possible to have a great impact on social life, such as throwing transportation systems into confusion by using backdoors to manipulate traffic light systems.
In Singapore, a system used by a major telecommunications company went down for about 24 hours in December 2016. According to informed sources, the telecommunications company used a router manufactured by Huawei. At that time, China was opposed to joint military exercises between Singapore and Taiwan, and many were said to believe that the system shutdown was a punishment by the Chinese government as a lesson to others.
Explanation next month
In a Yomiuri Shimbun national opinion poll conducted from Friday through Sunday, 69 percent of respondents supported the government's policy of excluding the two Chinese companies from procurement contracts, significantly exceeding the 12 percent who opposed it.
However, the exclusion will not resolve all the relevant issues. The new policy does not include independent administrative agencies, government-affiliated public corporations that deal with public information, or infrastructure operators.
In January next year, the government will explain about the new policy to infrastructure operators in 14 key areas, such as telecommunications and power plants. "We can't directly instruct private companies, so we have no choice but to hope they'll deal with the issue with the government's policy in mind," a source close to the Prime Minister's Office said.
"Weak security points are targeted, so it's necessary to promote measures involving the private sector," Kokubun said.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
