Rising Cyber Attacks Push Need for Stronger Defense
Shedding legacy systems through digital transformation is increasing the global spend on public cloud services, according to a recent IDC forecast. By the end of 2018, worldwide spending on public cloud is expected to reach $160 billion — a 23.2% increase over 2017. While the United States is still spending the bulk of those billions, Japan’s rapidly growing market is expected to contribute at least $5.8 billion to that spend.
With increased reliance on cloud services, comes an increased awareness of the potential for cyberattacks, especially since Japan’s government cloud faces consistent attacks. On April 3, Japan’s National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity warned that official email addresses for about 2,000 government officials had been leaked, reports the Japan News, noting that each year, government agencies face more than one million attacks.
“Without the right protections,” says Auth0 CISO Joan Pepin, “government cloud can be at least as vulnerable as public cloud. Authentication — making sure that users are who they claim to be — is a foundational security control.”
Certain industries, like the discrete manufacturing, manufacturing, and professional services industries that will take up to 43% of Japan’s spend, are turning to IoT to increase their capabilities, according to IDC. While these devices offer rapid, non-touch action as well as the collection of massive amounts of data, they also open organizations to various vulnerabilities, since the IoT industry lacks a consistent set of standards and protocols.
More than 20 billion connected devices are expected to be online globally by 2021, according to Gartner, bringing with them the potential for geometrically increasing risk. These vulnerabilities are easily exploited by hackers — botnet controllers increased by 140% in 2017.
"“Without the right protections,” says Auth0's @CloudCISO_Joan, “government cloud can be at least as vulnerable as public cloud. Authentication — making sure that users are who they claim to be — is a foundational security control.”"
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Given all the cybersecurity risks, Japan, like several other governments around the globe, took significant steps to protect personal data when the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) came into force last May. Although focused on data protection and privacy like the EU’s GDPR, APPI focuses on protecting the rights of individuals and extends protections to include personal identifier codes, and aggregated information in the "business operator’s" database. The EU and Japan are currently in discussions regarding mutual "whitelisting."
Based on these regulations and stricter policies around data management in the region, the need for enterprises in Japan to prioritize identity management is undeniable. We addressed this demand by establishing a formal Auth0 presence in Tokyo last year, and launching our website in Japanese: https://auth0.com/jp, and are continuing to dedicate significant resources to this region. Auth0 is uniquely suited to address the challenges of Japan-based and global companies looking to expand in this growing market. If you’re based in Japan and would like to learn more about how Auth0 can create a first line of seamless and secure defense, please reach out to yuichiro.kuwano@auth0.com.
"Auth0’s authentication can help protect industries like discrete manufacturing, manufacturing, and professional services expected to take up to 43% of Japan’s $5.8B public cloud spend spend in 2018."
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