ment of the related parties.

The recent cyber-attack incidents in Japan and other countries have increased in severity, particularly in terms of their targets; serious concerns have been shown in the declaration by leaders at the Deauville G8 Summit Meeting and mentioned in other international conferences; therefore, the importance of international cooperation has been repeatedly suggested with regard to the preservation of information security in the cyber space in addition to international regulations applied to the cyber space.

In Japan, in the situation where the serious targeted-attacks which might affect Japan's national security, such as the attacks to the defense industries including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd, the annual plan for FY 2012, "Information Security 2012", including the following items as the key principles was adopted in July 2012: ① the enhancement of counter measures to the high-level threats targeting the corporations and others involved with the critical information concerning the state and the national safety; ② the development of secured and safe environments for the usage of information-terminals including smartphones, shutting down the risks that have emerged along with the full-range spread of information terminals including smartphones; ③ the enhancement of the international cooperation.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has taken the following actions: the ministry, in collaboration with the ministries and agencies, including the Information Security Center, Cabinet Office and businesses, has established Telecom-ISAC Japan, the joint conference of the government and the business, for the purpose of discussing the information-sharing on cyber attacks and the enhancement of counter measures; the ministry has taken actions for the enhancement of corporation with telecom operators, broadcasting companies and the local governments; in addition, the ministry, collaborating with other countries, has been conducting research and development and proof-of-concept experiments for predicting cyber attacks and taking prompt actions.

### 4. ICT — Creator of New Added-Value, Serving as a Knowledge and Information Infrastructure — and Utilization of Big Data

An enormous amount of digital data has been created, distributed, and accumulated in the Internet since the completion of the ubiquitous network, particularly through the availability of advanced wireless communication technologies and the synergistic effects of the evolutions in the service level, such as the adoption of cloud services and social services, with the evolutions at the device level, such as the spread of smartphones and the progress of M2M communication. Various corporations and organizations around the world have initiated activities for the utilization of such Big Data, aiming to create innovative services or business models, to make correct judgments on management, or to improve business efficiency; in addition, the governments of the countries including the U.S.A, paying attention to the value-creation capability of Big Data, have started strategic actions, seeking ways to utilize Big Data for economic growth.

## (1) Utilization of Big Data: overview

Big Data is significant because it contains a vast amount of data, because it contains a variety of data, and because it has real-time capability; as a result of progress in ICT, the generation, collection and accumulation of data, in a manner exploiting the characteristics of Big Data, has become feasible and easy; the purpose and value of Big Data utilization is to provide services adaptive to individual users' needs, and to improve the business operation efficiency or to create new business, through the detection of abnormalities or the predictions concerning the near-future.

While, at present, Big Data is utilized in the web service fields such as search, e-commerce, or social media to provide such services, Big Data will be used for the creation of a variety of added-value, when a series of technologies of collection, accumulation, and analysis are developed, and new commercial services or equipments emerge.

As for the data eligible for Big-Data-like processing, as well as the data in the web service fields presently utilized, various new types of data including the data collected through sensor networks such as M2M are expected; the high-volume and diversified data collected through networks is expected to, through the cross-sector and real-time utilization, support the solution of social issues such as the reduction of traffic congestion, the enhancement of medical services or the prevention of crime, and to support the efficient operations of social and business infrastructures such as power grids; on the other hand, Big Data is expected to contribute to the growth of ICT industries through the creation of new types of ICT services.

The Ad-hoc Group on Big Data Utilization, ICT Basic Strategy Board, Information and Communications Council, with regard to the socio-economic effects of Big Data, estimates as follows: “At least 10 trillion yen of newly created value is expected in the market of Big Data-utilization involving the businesses using Big Data or support-service providers, along with 12 to 15 trillion yen of social-cost reduction.”