Google establishes first Asia-Pacific cyber defense hub in Tokyo

By Chanwoo Yong, The Readable
Mar. 8, 2024 10:16PM GMT+9

Tokyo has been chosen as the location for Google's inaugural cybersecurity hub, with the goal of strengthening cyber defense capabilities across the entire Asia-Pacific region.

On March 7, Google inaugurated a cybersecurity research center within its Tokyo office, as reported by several Japanese news outlets. The center is designed to function as a central hub, drawing in cybersecurity technologies from across the Asia-Pacific region. Google plans to invite engineers from South Korea, India, Australia, and Southeast Asian countries to collaborate, share technological insights, and engage in joint research efforts.

In October of the previous year, Google declared its intention to bolster cybersecurity initiatives across the Asia-Pacific region, identifying it as more susceptible to cyberattacks than any other area globally. In this announcement, Google outlined its strategy to set up a cybersecurity center in Japan. This facility aims to foster policy discussions, offer training programs for individuals, organizations, and governmental bodies, and back research efforts by universities and research institutions. Additionally, Google announced a significant commitment to Japan’s digital advancement, with a planned investment of $730 million in the country’s technical infrastructure set for October 2022.

Furthermore, the center is intended to serve as a venue for researching sophisticated cyberattack methods in collaboration with cybersecurity experts from other companies. It will also concentrate on enhancing the professional workforce associated with cyber defense, as reported by media outlets. According to a report by ISC2 in November of last year, Japan experienced a 97.6% increase in the cybersecurity workforce gap compared to the year before. The report highlighted that Japan needs an additional 110,254 cybersecurity professionals to supplement its existing workforce.

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The cover image of this article was designed by Daeun Lee. This article was edited by Dain Oh and copyedited by Arthur Gregory Willers.

Chanwoo Yong is a reporting intern for The Readable. Majoring in cybersecurity at Korea University, Yong has an intense interest in cybercrime and cybercriminals as well as a passion for making cybersecurity and its surrounding issues understandable to the general reader. Yong aspires to become a bridge between cybersecurity experts and the public by translating the experts’ language into layman’s terms the public can understand. Yong has worked as a data engineer for an AI Platform belonging to Korea University Anam Hospital, where he participated in research titled “Deep Learning-Based Prediction Model for Gait Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury.”