January 30, 2020 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, the study group has been studying an evaluation method necessary for the government to introduce cloud services that meet appropriate security. In this connection, MIC has decided to open a report from the study group to public, along with the following decisions of the Cyber Security Strategy Headquarters of the government: (1) The basic framework of the cybersecurity system, (2) The concept of the use of the system by government agencies, etc., and (3) The jurisdiction and operation of the system.

With consideration of Future Investment Strategy 2018 (Cabinet decision on June 15, 2018), MIC and METI organized the study group on safety evaluation of cloud services in August 2018, and since then, it has been evaluating the safety of cloud services.
With the participation of deep insights into information security and data utilization, the study group discussed various existing guidelines for cloud services and evaluation methods necessary for the government to introduce cloud services that satisfy appropriate security by referring to domestic and overseas certification systems, audit systems, etc.
In this connection, MIC made an appeal for opinions from Saturday, December 12 through Thursday, December 26, 2020, on the study group’s draft report, and has decided to open the finalized report with necessary amendments added, along with the opinions submitted and MIC’s views on the opinions.
Although this report is in the framework of the system, and various standards in the system are still under consideration, and MIC will provide a separate opportunity for appealing for opinions.
Furthermore, MIC decided to announce the following decisions of the Cyber Security Strategy Headquarters on January 30, 2019: (1) The basic framework of the cybersecurity system, (2) The concept of the use of the system by government agencies, etc., and (3) The jurisdiction and operation of the system.

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