New Cybersecurity Support Service Pilot for Small Businesses
Overview
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and IPA will launch a pilot project toward establishing a new system. Certified service providers will introduce support services to small and medium-sized enterprises and verify their content, quality, and price appropriateness. Participating companies can receive support aimed at obtaining a 3-star or 4-star rating under the SCS Evaluation System. Based on the pilot results, the new system is targeted to begin alongside the launch of the SCS Evaluation System around the end of fiscal 2026.
Key points
- The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and IPA will launch a pilot project toward establishing the Cybersecurity Support Service for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (New Type) system.
- IPA-certified providers will introduce support services to small and medium-sized enterprises and verify their content, quality, and price appropriateness.
- Participating companies can receive services aimed at obtaining a 3-star or 4-star rating under the SCS Evaluation System.
- The pilot will be used to consider quality and pricing requirements for the new system, with the aim of launching it.
Overview
As corporate activities become increasingly digitalized, the risk of cyberattacks is rising, and cases have also occurred in which damage originating at small and medium-sized enterprises spreads to business partners and other companies. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is working toward establishing the Supply Chain Security Evaluation System (SCS Evaluation System), which visualizes the status of security measures that companies in the supply chain should implement according to common criteria.
Because small and medium-sized enterprises face challenges such as not knowing how to begin implementing security measures and lacking specialized personnel and budgets, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and IPA will conduct a pilot project providing ongoing support for addressing the SCS Evaluation System.
Impact
Small and medium-sized enterprises participating in the pilot can, with government support, implement measures free of charge, including organizational measures and the security services required to obtain a rating under the SCS Evaluation System.
Participating companies can prepare for requests to obtain a rating after the SCS Evaluation System launches and improve trust with business partners as companies working on supply chain security measures.
Details
Service providers certified by IPA will provisionally offer participating small and medium-sized enterprises services for obtaining a 3-star or 4-star rating under the SCS Evaluation System. The pilot will verify how the services are used and their results, and consider quality and pricing requirements for the new type.
The target participants are small and medium-sized enterprises and other entities that form part of the supply chain. Applicants can select a provider from those published on IPA's information page according to their industry, scale, and challenges, and apply through the selected provider.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will use the pilot to consider the form of security services that small and medium-sized enterprises can readily adopt, with the aim of launching the new type of system and service provision alongside the launch of the SCS Evaluation System.