Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has signed a letter of intent to join the Charter of Trust for Cybersecurity in Tokyo, expanding the Charter’s reach into Asia.
The membership is expected to be concluded by the end of September, 2019. As the 17th Charter partner, MHI will be the first Asian company to become a member of the global cybersecurity initiative.
“Cybersecurity is the key enabler for a successful implementation of the Internet of Things, as well as protecting critical infrastructure,” said Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens.
“And cybersecurity also knowns no boundries. That’s why we highly appreciate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries joining us as the first big Asian company, making the digital world more trustworthy and secure. This will make our joint initiative even more global.”
“Cybersecurity is a focal area for MHI, and we continue to place importance on developing next-generation solutions in this area. We hope to contribute to making this effort more global,” Shunichi Miyanaga, President & CEO of MHI, said.
The Charter of Trust was initially announced at the Munich Security Conference in 2018. Initiated by Siemens, it calls for binding rules and standards to build trust in cybersecurity and further advance digitalization.
Charter of Trust member companies have also worked out baseline requirements to make digital supply chains more secure. The partners recently announced to implement these requirements in their own supply chains.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, threats to cybersecurity in 2018 caused EUR 500 billion in losses worldwide. And threats to cybersecurity are constantly on the rise as the world digitalizes further.