ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will establish ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence Inc. (“ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence”), which will take cybersecurity measures for ITOCHU and the ITOCHU Group companies, in February 2023.

The importance of ensuring security from cyber attacks has been increasing in recent years. Cyber attacks have a significant impact on business. Attacks on a company could lead to a disruption to the entire supply chain. A team that promotes cybersecurity at a company is called a CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team). The CSIRT engages in a variety of operations that require highly specialized expertise, including the analysis and monitoring of threats and risks and drills including simulated attacks on systems at the company. In Japan, few companies have their own security team having highly specialized expertise except for IT vendors, etc. They depend on vendors for cybersecurity, which results in limited knowledge and inadequate human resources. That has led to increasing damage and losses caused by cyber attacks.

ITOCHU established a CSIRT in 2012 and has developed its own cybersecurity system. When established, ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence will take over the CSIRT and expand its functions and will build a system to support cybersecurity at ITOCHU and about 200 Group companies. In addition, ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence will strengthen its cybersecurity system while also cultivating security personnel through training on security responses to Group companies engaging in diverse business domains.

ITOCHU’s targets laid out in its basic policies of the medium-term management plan are realizing business transformation by shifting to a market-oriented perspective and enhancing our contribution to and engagement with the SDGs through business activities. In addition to protecting the Group’s businesses against cyber threats by establishing ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence, ITOCHU aims to contribute to solving issues in cybersecurity for social infrastructure in Japan by using the knowledge and expertise that ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence will gain.