In cybersecurity the question isn’t “if” there will be a cyberattack, but “when” and “how” that attack will occur.
With that in mind, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department wants to get in front of any future breaches. Earlier this year, the TMPD launched a partnership with Clearwater-based cybersecurity nonprofit (ISC)² to strengthen its cybersecurity prior to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which are now postponed until July 2021 due to Covid-19. The TMPD will adopt (ISC)² credentials for selected members within its law enforcement agencies and provision official training classes for officers.
The partnership originated during a trip (ISC)² COO Wesley Simpson took to Japan, during which time he met with various government agencies and connected with the TMPD.
“One thing that blew me away about the Tokyo Police Department, was this was an agency that was so passionate and enthusiastic about creating [a cybersecurity program],” Simpson said. “They didn’t know what to do but knew they had to do it.”
Last year, the TMPD contacted (ISC)² informing the nonprofit that it was ready to move forward with a multilevel program for cybersecurity training. (ISC)² provided the TMPD with ideas, references and data to inform their approach. In January 2020, the Department sent five law enforcement officers to Clearwater to hash out the details with the (ISC)² team.
“This was an organization that was extremely hungry,” Simpson said. “They knew what they didn’t know and were willing to partner with anyone who could give them some knowledge on how to do this.”
As part of a memorandum of understanding, (ISC)² will provide the TMPD with videos and coursework for cybersecurity training classes to be built into its officer training program. The goal is to prepare officers for (ISC)²’s cybersecurity certification test, CISSP.
“This offers a broad base of foundations and elements on how to create a cybersecurity plan,” Simpson said. “It is aimed at the manager level but also gets into details, cryptography and physical security aspects and controls. [It provides] inch-deep and mile-wide language and cybersecurity skills and abilities that an individual would need to bring to their organization, to build and roll out a cybersecurity program that they can be proud of.”
Simpson said (ISC)² is starting to see agencies like the TMPD “lean forward” on this type of training, in an effort to converge cybersecurity and more traditional physical security knowledge and skills.
“No matter what job you’re doing within [the TMPD], they’re building that base layer so even if you don’t specialize in cybersecurity, you’ll understand that lexicon and framework,” Simpson said.
