Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions Launched

Assured Inc. (Head Office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Atsushi Omori) is pleased to announce the release of "Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions," a new service that allows for the security assessment of cloud services based on the high security standards required by financial institutions*1, aligning with the "Assured Cloud Assessment" service for evaluating the security credibility of cloud services.

Through this service, we aim to standardize security assessment criteria across the industry and enhance the security of third parties as a whole, going beyond simply improving the efficiency of individual company investigation tasks in the financial industry, where the dual demands of strict security governance and rapid DX promotion are paramount.

*1 Management items based on major domestic and international security guidelines and frameworks, including those from the Financial Services Agency.

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Cyberattack Damage and the Advancement of Security Governance in Financial Institutions

As digitalization accelerates across all industries, "cyberattack damage" via business partners, including cloud services, has become a serious social issue. In particular, the financial industry, which places high importance on reliability and safety, is seeing an accelerating year-on-year demand for advanced governance responses, such as the permeation of the Financial Services Agency's "Guidelines on Cybersecurity in the Financial Sector*2" and the tightening of requirements for third-party risk management. Consequently, cloud services used are now required to undergo security assessments with a greater depth than ever before.

"Assured Cloud Assessment" has been in service since 2022 to address the burden on cloud service providers arising from investigations using unique, company-specific check sheets and the handling of repetitive responses when considering the use or continuation of cloud services. As of the end of April 2026, it has been introduced by over 1,800 companies, including 220 financial institutions, supporting the secure and safe utilization of cloud services.

Based on the evaluation know-how and proven reliability accumulated to date, we are launching the new service, "Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions," which incorporates management items based on major domestic and international security guidelines and frameworks, including those from the Financial Services Agency.

*2 Guidelines on Cybersecurity in the Financial Sector

Four Features of "Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions"

1. Contribution to Industry-Wide Efficiency with "Common Assessment Standards" Aligned with Financial Institutions' Requirements Reflecting global trends and advanced security perspectives, our security experts at "Assured Cloud Assessment" have designed questions to enable financial institutions to achieve in-depth security assessments with minimal resources. This allows for the replacement of investigations previously conducted independently by each financial institution with "Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions."

2. Objective Assessment by "Assured Cloud Assessment" Security Experts and Outsourcing of Advanced Assessment Operations "Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions" objectively assesses the security measures of cloud services from a professional standpoint. Financial institution representatives can obtain highly reliable assessment information simply by requesting an investigation. Furthermore, by requiring approval for the disclosure scope of security assessment reports from cloud service providers, highly confidential security information can be provided securely and safely*3.

*3 Patent Number: Patent No. 7015889

3. Realization of a "Risk-Based Approach" Differentiated by Importance Instead of imposing uniform strict standards on all cloud services, it is possible to differentiate between the "Financial Edition" and the "Standard Edition" based on the confidentiality of the information handled. This contributes to the realization of advanced and efficient security management that effectively utilizes limited management resources.

4. Provision of a Metric Reflecting Financial Institutions' Perspectives "Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions" provides a common metric for the security standards required by financial institutions, enabling cloud service providers to align their assessment items with these requirements. This also reduces the burden of investigation responses and contributes to the efficiency of response operations.

[Client Companies]

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., Japan Post Bank Co., Ltd., Japan Exchange Group, Inc.

"Assured Cloud Assessment for Financial Institutions" is widely available to financial institutions nationwide.

Comment from Atsushi Omori, President and CEO of Assured Inc.

Since the launch of "Assured Cloud Assessment" in 2022, we have been addressing the security assessment challenges faced by many companies. This service was developed in response to the urgent requests from financial institutions for detailed items aligned with domestic and international guidelines.

We have consolidated our accumulated know-how to provide "common assessment standards" that meet the high security requirements of financial institutions. We will strive not only to improve the efficiency of individual company investigation tasks but also to contribute to the standardization and advancement of security assessments across the industry, thereby building a solid foundation of trust for the digital society.

[About Assured Cloud Assessment for Security Credibility of Cloud Services]

"Assured Cloud Assessment" is a platform that visualizes the safety of cloud services such as SaaS/ASP. By sharing and managing the results of third-party assessments by security experts on the platform, it provides an unprecedented security assessment mechanism that allows anyone to easily obtain reliable assessment information. As of the end of April 2026, it has been introduced by over 1,800 companies, including 220 financial institutions, supporting the secure and safe utilization of cloud services.

URL: https://assured.jp/cl

[About Assured, the Security Credibility Assessment Platform]

"Assured" is a platform that assesses the security credibility of business partners and cloud services and manages their respective assessment information. By standardizing investigation items that differ for each company and enabling anyone to perform security assessments without relying on specific individuals, it liberates companies from investigation tasks and aims for industry-wide transparency. Furthermore, by visualizing security systems through objective assessment indicators, it contributes to strengthening security throughout society by enabling its use as a testament to trust and promoting autonomous improvement.

URL: https://assured.jp

X: https://twitter.com/AssuredJP

[About Assured Inc.]

With the mission "To open up the unknown with trust," Assured Inc. operates services that support companies' security measures. As part of the Visional Group, which promotes digital transformation (DX) across various industries, Assured Inc. is responsible for the cybersecurity domain, offering the vulnerability management cloud "yamory," the cloud service security credibility assessment "Assured," and the business partner security credibility assessment "Assured Company Assessment." In a society where everything is connected via the internet, we aim to create new connections through trust and bring new possibilities to society.

URL: https://assured.inc