December 11, 2019 Appeal for Opinions on Draft Interim Report Issued by Study Group on Safety Evaluation of Cloud Services

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) organized a study group on safety evaluation of cloud services to enable both the public and private sectors to adopt and continuously use cloud services with greater security. Since then, they have been studying an evaluation method necessary for the government to introduce cloud services that meet appropriate security. In this connection, MIC has decided to make an appeal for opinions from Thursday, December 12, through Thursday, December 26, on an interim report drafted by the study group.

1. Overview

With consideration of Future Investment Strategy 2018 (Cabinet decision on June 15, 2018), MIC and METI organized a study group on safety evaluation of cloud services in August 2018, and they have been studying a method for evaluating the security of cloud services.

In the study, MIC and METI had experts with deep insights into information security and data utilization participate, and discussed an evaluation method necessary for the government to introduce cloud services that will meet appropriate security by referring to existing guidelines for cloud services, certification systems in Japan and overseas, and audit systems.

With consideration of public comments on the draft interim report collected from March through April 2019, the study group recently drafted a temporary report, and MIC has decided to make an appeal for opinions from Thursday, December 12 through Thursday, December 26 to obtain a wide range of opinions.

The appeal for opinions this time is on the details of the framework of the institutional system, and various standards in the system are still under consideration, and a separate opportunity for the reception of opinions will be provided.

2. Guidelines for appealing opinions

1. Subject

Draft Interim Report Issued by Study Group on Safety Evaluation of Cloud Services

2. Submission deadline

No later than Thursday, December 26, 2019, ^*That is, 0:00 on Friday, December 27 Japan Standard Time (Opinions, if submitted by mail, must arrive no later than December 26, 2019.)

3. Reference

Excerpt of Future Investment Strategy 2018 (Cabinet decision on June 15, 2018)
II．Creation of Foundation for Economic Structural Innovation
[1] Development of Common Infrastructure for Data-driven Society
1. Promotion of Investment in Basic Systems and Technologies
(3) New Concrete Measures to be Taken
ii) Ensuring Cybersecurity
(Omitted)
• With the diversification and sophistication of cloud services, to enable both public and private sectors to adopt and continuously use cloud services with greater safety and security, the study group will start examining the security evaluation of cloud services in and after this fiscal year while referring to examples from other countries according to the importance of information assets, from the viewpoint of securing reliability.