Cyber Security: The War on Cyber Attacks Urges Experts to Resolve

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This is the fist article in a series of " Cyber Attacks "

SEOUL, KOREA- With the recent incidents of serious cyber terrors, such as 320, 625, attention primarily focuses on protecting information. Following the interview of Korea’s leading information protection industry pioneer and professionals, their plans to protect information will be reported in a series.

The October issue of the Seoul Conference of Cyberspace 2013 will be covered in cooperation with the organizing committee of the conference.  When “Cyberspace 2013” comes to a conclusion, a book will be published covering all aspects of the Cyberspace conference.  As the first issue, Korea IT Times had an interview with Lim Jong-in, dean of the Graduate School of Information Security, Korea University, and the interviewers were a guest from Korea IT Times and Doctor Seo Jae-cheol, a senior researcher of Internet and Security Agency.

Security manpower are urgent

Korea needs to map out concrete mid- and long-term projects in order to turn out many security professionals, Lim Jong-in, dean of the Graduate School of Information Security, Korea University, said.

Noting that Korea is absolutely insufficient in the number of professional analysts and white hackers who can positively cope with cyber attacks and analyze the attacks at a proper time in case of the occurrence of cyber terror, he said, "The government should come out with proper mid- and long-term projects in the near future to produce enough cyber security manpower.

"As of the end of 2011, cyber security elite manpower in Korean army accounts for a mere 1.5 percent of the 650,000 Korean soldiers. Moreover, the number of security professionals who majored in the information and communication field is very insufficient."

In an interview with Korea IT Times, Lim said, "If the domestic information security industry is not activated and the status of information security professionals is not enhanced, excellent talents are reluctant to enter the information security industry, resulting in the weakness of security technical skills."

Cheong Wa Dae's role as the control tower of cyber security

Asked about the Cheong Wa Dae (presidential office)'s role as the control tower of cyber security, Lim said, "Under the present situation that conflicts between ministries exist and there is an imbalance in information sharing between the government and the private sector, it is difficult to analyze malicious codes and internet traffic properly. Although the cyber security crisis is heightened, there is no relevant laws and regulations to effectively cope with cyber attacks."

Commenting that in many cases, cyber attacks come from foreign countries, he said, "Traceback of cyber attack origin is very difficult. For effective investigation at a proper time, accordingly, we need to prepare a system to chase back the cyber attack origin through cooperative investigation between countries."

On the June 25 shutdown of the website of Cheong Wa Dae by unidentified cyber attack, Lim said, "In fact, North Korea has a mind, it can make cyber attacks against many places in South Korea as our society is very vulnerable in terms of security.

"To make things worse, many network equipment, systems and softwares that North Korean hackers put malicious code are flowing into South Korea."

Government's market intervention

Commenting that our society has entered into the initial stage of the ubiquitous society, he said, "Like the world without virus is impossible, information security vulnerability is intrinsic characteristic of informatization. Accordingly, cyber security cannot be achieved by minority groups so that the nationwide investment and the government's market intervention through laws and regulations are necessary to solve such side effects."

Citing security breach cases in the U.S., which pulled down the stock prices of relevant companies by more than 2 percent on the average, Lim said, "The order and security of the Internet world cannot be achieved without citizens' voluntary participation. A considerable portion of cyber security cases such as contagion of malicious code and data leakage through P2P can be prevented by citizens' cyber security habits.

"When all parties concerned - the government, enterprises and the citizens - recognize the seriousness of the cyber security issue and map out and carry out fundamental solutions, Korea will become a true power information security nation in the world.