Minister in Charge of Japan's Cybersecurity Says He Has Never Used a Computer (nytimes.com)

Futurepower(R) shares a report: A lot of people don't use computers. Most of them aren't in charge of a nation's cybersecurity. But one is. Japanese lawmakers were aghast on Wednesday when Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, the minister who heads the government's cybersecurity office, said during questioning in Parliament that he had no need for the devices, and appeared confused when asked basic technology questions. "I have been independently running my own business since I was 25 years old," he said. When computer use is necessary, he said, "I order my employees or secretaries" to do it. [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source.] "I don't type on a computer," he added.

Asked by a lawmaker if nuclear power plants allowed the use of USB drives, a common technology widely considered to be a security risk, Mr. Sakurada did not seem to understand what they were. "I don't know details well," he said. "So how about having an expert answer your question if necessary, how's that?" The comments were immediately criticized. "I can't believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures," said Masato Imai, an opposition lawmaker.

Comments

Doesn't have to be that bad

[bickerdyke]

This is much better than having someone who thinks he is a cybersecurity expert after blacklisting a website on his home router. That guy would not think it's safe to plug in a random USB stick in a nuclear power plant terminal because "of course the plant has a firewall".

He at least KNOWS that he has to ask experts for technical questions. It's the half-knowledge that's most dangerous.

Re:Doesn't have to be that bad

[Sarten-X]

That's my thought, too. I've been teaching people to use computers for 20 years. It's pretty easy to show people what technology will let them do.

What's a lot more difficult is to teach the thought process to recognize unsafe interactions that is necessary for a security expert. I can't easily teach someone to second-guess technical assumptions stated as facts. I can't easily teach someone to understand that nobody is trustworthy enough to have unaudited system privileges. I can't easily teach someone that security comes from work, not from progress.

Sure, I can try to teach these things. I can lecture lots of students, and they might even learn a few of the concepts, but thinking from a security perspective is very different from the "just make it work" approach that engineers and sysadmins tend to follow. Give me an old businessman who understands how to manage people and processes to do the huge amounts of work needed to maintain security, and I can teach him the few technical details he'll need to make sense of the systems.

How is this news?

[Roger W Moore]

Most science ministers lack a science degree and there have certainly been some decidedly uneducated education ministers. Defence ministers have rarely served in the armed forces and we once had a Chancellor of the Exchequer who could not balance his credit card. Sadly, in a democracy, the only qualification for the job that counts is that you got more votes than anyone else and all this requires is that you look like less of a drooling idiot than the other people standing for election...and sometimes even that isn't true.

Re:I actually don't see a problem here ...

[rkordmaa]

He doesn't even understand the purpose of the organization he is running, you can replace him with a monkey and get the same results.