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Major Kusanagi and the members of Public Security Section 9 are on a quest to promote cybersecurity as part of an upcoming public awareness campaign.

The world of 2002’s animated masterpiece Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (hereafter “S.A.C.”) is set in 2030–only 14 years away. While the current world we inhabit is a far cry from the future depicted in the anime, there’s no doubt that many of the issues portrayed in the series will become more and more relevant in the years to come, especially ones concerning cyberterrorism and other cyber-crime issues.

And that makes the cybernetic law enforcement specialists of Ghost in the Shell‘s Public Security Section 9 perfect to team up with the real-life National center of Incident readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) and the Japan Network Security Association (JNSA) for an upcoming cybersecurity public awareness campaign!

Check out the following posters featuring Major Kusanagi and others created in promotion of this year’s Cybersecurity Month in Japan, from February 1-March 18:

▼ “Protect the net with us!”

In addition to the posters, a specially created Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. side-story manga, tie-in website, and even cyber weather forecasts are among the promotional items slated to be released later this month. Furthermore, the campaign also features a Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. tie-in with the Information Security Management Exam, which is administered by Japan’s Information Technology Promotion Agency (IPA):

▼ “You’ve got some good skills. Become one of my partners!”

Regarding the upcoming tie-in campaign, Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. animation studio Production I.G co-founder and CEO Mitsuhisa Ishikawa commented,

“In Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C., the character Chief Aragaki has an incredibly influential line which goes something like ‘Teamwork born from grandstanding.’ It feels as if we’re now in an age where this quote accurately depicts the circumstances surrounding current internet security. The rapid adoption of the internet, along with the rapid spread of smartphones for the past several years, has brought about a time which demands each and every individual to possess a great consciousness and accurate knowledge concerning the internet. Through individuals who have the correct knowledge promoting (‘grandstanding’) these issues, we can create a safe internet society as a whole (‘teamwork as a result’). If you take a look at the tie-in poster we’ve created this time, we’ll be happy if even one person can help many more become interested in cyber security issues.”

Hopefully an elite hacker like the “Laughing Man” will never appear in real life. But if one does, we’ll have to turn to the real-life equivalents of the Major and her crew for help!

Source: ITmedia, Inc.
Featured image: Twitter/@cas_nisc (edited by RocketNews24)