Hitachi joins Akrites as the first Japanese company to advance industry-wide vulnerability response for critical OSS

November 10, 2026

Contributing to the cyber defense of open-source software that supports social infrastructure, together with leading companies in frontier AI and other fields

.SANTA CLARA, Calif., November 10, Tokyo, November 11, 2026 - Hitachi, Ltd. ("Hitachi") has become the first Japanese company to join Akrites^*1*2, a global cross-industry project  focused on protecting critical open-source software (OSS) that supports social infrastructure. Akrites aims to establish a common approach to addressing OSS-targeted cyber threats while advancing  vulnerability assessment, remediation, and disclosure. Akrites was established in June 2026 by The Linux Foundation together with leading global companies and organizations in fields including frontier AI, cloud computing, financial services, and telecommunications.

Hitachi will participate in Akrites as a Premier Member, appointing a representative to the board and contributing to the project’s governance and the development of its strategic direction. With Hitachi's Open Source Program Office ("Hitachi OSPO") ^*3, which globally leads Hitachi's strategic use of OSS, playing a central role, more than 30 engineers from across Hitachi Group, including Hitachi Energy and Hitachi Vantara, will also make technical contributions to the project as One Hitachi. Hitachi will apply the technologies and expertise gained through these activities to the Hitachi Group's IT, OT and products, as well as to its operational resilience service, HMAX Cyber.

Through these efforts, Hitachi will drive Akrites activities together with leading companies and organizations across various fields and the OSS community, leveraging the knowledge and technologies it has cultivated in social infrastructure to address vulnerabilities in critical OSS on a global scale, and contribute to improving the security and reliability of OSS that supports social infrastructure and digital services.

*1 Akrites
*2 As of November 11, 2026, Hitachi is the first company headquartered in Japan to join Akrites, according to Hitachi's research based on publicly available information from Akrites.
*3 Press Release issued on November 8, 2024: Established the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) to Globally Lead the Strategic Utilization of OSS

Comment from Jim Zemlin, CEO of The Linux Foundation

Securing the open-source software the world runs on takes shared commitment from the companies that depend on it. We welcome Hitachi to Akrites and applaud its investment in this collective effort. By bringing industry expertise together with upstream maintainers, we can turn advances in vulnerability discovery into faster fixes and stronger software for everyone.

Comment from Hiroaki Koiwa, Head of Cyber CoE, AI & Software Services Business Unit, Hitachi, Ltd.

As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and fast-moving with advances in AI, addressing vulnerabilities across the entire supply chain, including OSS, is essential to ensuring the business continuity of social infrastructure. Hitachi views its participation in Anthropic’s Critical Infrastructure Defense Program^*4 and its activities in Akrites as complementary initiatives. By working with the community through Akrites to assess and remediate vulnerabilities in critical OSS identified using AI, Hitachi will make its vulnerability response more reliable. Hitachi will also apply the technologies and expertise gained through these activities to HMAX Cyber, contributing to customers’ business continuity and enhanced cyber resilience.

*4 Press Release issued on October 9, 2026: Hitachi joins Anthropic’s Critical Infrastructure Defense Program

Background

OSS is widely used in mission-critical systems across sectors such as energy, manufacturing, financial services, and the public sector, playing a vital role in supporting social infrastructure. Recognizing its importance, Hitachi established Hitachi OSPO in November 2024. Through the strategic use of OSS essential to its businesses, contributions to development in various OSS communities, and activities to promote OSS adoption, Hitachi has collaborated with stakeholders globally.

While advances in AI lead to an increase in cyberattacks that exploit vulnerabilities in OSS, many OSS communities have limited personnel and resources to assess and remediate vulnerabilities, making it difficult to respond promptly. Additionally, amid evolving regulations such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)^*5, efforts are increasingly required to ensure security across the entire supply chain.  Addressing these challenges requires not only the efforts of individual companies and organizations, but also cross-industry collaboration to bring together expertise and resources and advance vulnerability response in coordination with OSS communities.

*5 EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA): an EU regulation that requires cybersecurity to be ensured  across the entire supply chain for digital products offered on the EU market, from design and development through post-market support.

Hitachi’s Activities in Akrites

With Hitachi OSPO playing a central role, more than 30 engineers from functions including IT and OT product development, security, quality assurance, and research and development will participate in Akrites activities. Through these activities, Hitachi will work as One Hitachi to strengthen vulnerability response capabilities for critical OSS that supports social infrastructure. Specifically, Hitachi will focus on OSS used in mission-critical social infrastructure across sectors such as energy, manufacturing, financial services, and the public sector. Its activities will include assessing vulnerabilities, developing patches, and coordinating with OSS maintainers and relevant stakeholders to appropriately disclose vulnerability information based on remediation status.

As an initial initiative, Hitachi will work to establish an end-to-end vulnerability response process for Keycloak, open-source authentication and authorization software widely used to control access to AI agents and APIs. The process will cover vulnerability triage, including the assessment of severity and response priority, through remediation and coordinated vulnerability disclosure.

A maintainer selected from Hitachi^*6 will work closely with security and other experts across the Hitachi Group to address vulnerabilities in Keycloak, while also contributing to the enhancement of cyber defense processes within Akrites.

Hitachi will leverage the technologies and expertise gained through these activities to further strengthen its security measures, including accelerating vulnerability response for OSS incorporated into its IT and OT products and services. Hitachi will also enhance the capabilities and value of the cybersecurity services that comprise, HMAX Cyber, contributing to customers’ business continuity and enhanced cyber resilience.

*6 A maintainer is a developer who plays a central role in maintaining and managing an OSS project, including code development and review, as well as addressing defects and vulnerabilities. Announcement issued on October 26, 2021: Hitachi Employee Appointed as Maintainer of the Open Source Software ‘Keycloak’ Development Project

About Akrites

Akrites is a coordinated confidential effort to remediate and disclose vulnerabilities in the open source software that critical infrastructure depends on. It provides a single, standardized Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) process operated by a shared Security Incident Response Team (SIRT), built on confidentiality-first principles and the industry’s established standards and tooling (CVE, TLP, CWE, CVSS, EPSS, SSVC, VEX). To learn more or to join, visit https://akrites.org.

Related Sites

Hitachi OSPO (Japanese only)

HMAX Cyber (Japanese only)

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Organization and product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective organizations.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT(Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi aims to be a global leader in continuously transforming social infrastructure through digital, contributing to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates worldwide across four sectors – Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries – as well as a Strategic SIB Business Unit focused on new growth areas. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi creates value by combining data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2025 (ended March 31, 2026) totaled 10,586.7 billion yen, with 606 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 290,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at https://www.hitachi.com/en/.