Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

MND held a ‘Defense cyber security council’ at the videoconference room on March 11 to discuss countermeasures to the recently increasing cyber threats.

The meeting was attended by officers from the Cyber Warfare Command, the Defense Security Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other military cyber-related departments, and was conducted by Vice Minister Hwang Inmoo.

Given the possibility that North Korea, with a cyber warfare force of around 6,800, will make cyber-attacks as an asymmetric mean, the attendees evaluated the recent situation of cyber threats, inspected each organization for its cyber defense readiness, and discussed countermeasures at the day’s meeting held in order to establish its cyber security posture in the area of defense.

Information about smartphone hacking, which has been a recent issue, and malware infection as well as cyber attack techniques and countermeasures was shared and discussed. The attendees also inspected field units for their readiness against cyber threats according to issuance of INFOCON (Information Operation Condition) 3.

Vice Minister Hwang praised the cyber defense personnel for their hard work, including officials who engage in control duty 24-hours a day, and emphasized the need to maintain a posture of continuous readiness.

In addition to this meeting, MND has improved its evaluation and analysis systems related to information systems in order to strengthen its cyber security posture, and comprehensively inspected the defense information system for weak points.

MND is planning to organize an elite team to discover weak points that haven’t been found before through this comprehensive inspection, so countermeasures against cyber threats are expected to be further enhanced.

Beyond this, MND will establish an overall development plan to strengthen the foundation of the cyber security posture in the first half of this year, including improving the cyber specialty workforce, improving the training system, establishing a new defense cyber technology research center, and more.

By Seok-Jong, Lee < seokjong@dema.mil.kr >

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