Japan’s new cybersecurity minister has ‘never used a computer’–claiming to have delegated to staff and secretaries since he was 25. This is especially interesting because his duties include overseeing cyber-defense preparations for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. In addition, Sakurada allegedly struggled to answer a follow-up question about whether USB drives were in use at the country’s nuclear power stations.
With the total cost of cybercrime committed expected to cost global businesses over $2 trillion by 2019, this revelation has raised concern, and the impact could weigh on Japan’s state of cybersecurity.
Two cybersecurity experts have commented on the incident below.
Bryan Becker, Application Security Researcher at WhiteHat Security:
All of that aside, if Sakurada is going to be effective, one likely option would be for him to turn to the private sector for help. There are probably going to be some very lucrative contracts available for partnerships with the Japanese government in the near future.
On the other hand, there is something to be said of the security of a man who’s never used a computer in his life. You can’t hack something that’s not there!”
Jeremy Cheung, Vulnerability Verification Specialist at WhiteHat Security:
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