Clusters from the Cyber Wales ecosystem gathered in Newport to host visitors from Japan.
Izumi Wakugawa, a new member of the Political Section of the British Embassy in Tokyo, made time to come to speak with members of Cyber Wales to better understand the nature of the ecosystem and the extent of it very close ties to the cybersecurity community in Japan. As a new member of the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in Japan Izumi was looking forward to meeting as many people as possible.
Richard Koizumi, a new member of the Welsh Government's International Trade team in Japan, also came to visit to at the same time prior to taking over as the new desk officer for Welsh Government in Tokyo.
Cluster leads from the South Wales Cyber Security Cluster, the North Wales Cyber Security Cluster, the Middle East Cluster, the Women in Cyber Wales Cluster and the Capture the Flag (CTF) Cluster all gathered to provide an overview of the Welsh Cyber ecosystem and explain some of the activities and intiatives they are working on.
Detective Superintendent Martin R Peters MA CISMP MCIIS PIP3SIO, , also came from London to present the UK National Cyber programmes that are being run by Welsh cyber companies. The Cyber Essentials Scheme, the SudoCyber gamified online cyber learning platform used to teach the UK Police cyber crime teams, and the Police Cyber Alarm programme are all solutions that have been developed and are being run by Welsh companies. DS Peters explained that the UK police are particularly keen to export the Police Cyber Alarm programme to other police forces around the world.
The 2-day visit also included visit to a cardiff-based cyber security service provider, ITSUS Consulting Ltd, who are a supplier of expert secure networ services to the Defence sector.
The visit was also a fantastic opportunity to chat with Izumi and Richard and hear about the resurgent cyber security sector in Japan. The G7 Summit, held in Hiroshima in May, which resulted in the UK-Japan Hiroshima Accords both had cyber challenges and initiatives on their agendas and the discussions around skills development, improving diversity and enabling a whole of society approach to cyber were in-depth and fascinating.
Massive thank you to everyone who joined us!