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by Hong Suk-un, Editor / swhong@ittimes.co.kr
Q. Calls for national information protection measures are abundant, following the recent hacking of government offices that originated in China. What are the urgent tasks or policy objectives of KISA
A: It cannot be said that the hacking was done by Chinese, even though it originated in China. Hackers can freely change source addresses. It means that the IP addresses apportioned to a certain country are not necessarily owned by hackers in that country. The controversial Peep is a kind of Trojan Virus, and the hackers targeted individual Internet users.
There are now 30 million PCs in use in Korea, and responding to threats against all these computers is impossible. The thorough surveillance of as many as 11.5 million highspeed Internet subscribers and 86,000 exclusive circuits is also impossible technologically and legally.
To protect against hacking, KISA will try hard to enhance systems that can detect hacking attempts before attacks happen. It will also work to analyze the latest hacking trends in order to inform the public. By doing these, KISA intends to contribute to protecting private information in individual PCs.
Q. How will KrCERT cooperate effectively and divide work with the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) of the National Intelligence Service What about future prospects
A: The NCSC has a similar mission, information protection, as KrCERT, but is responsible for protecting different kinds of information. The NCSC protects information of the government and related organizations while KrCERT works for the civilian sector.
Despite the different business spheres, the two security bodies have similar technological approaches to hacking and other Internet intrusion problems. Accordingly, we exchange necessary information and plan to tighten cooperative ties.
Q. Overseas advances by domestic security firms have been increasing. Are there any KISA support measures or policy approaches in keeping with the industry's globalization drive
A:KISA runs an industrial support center, is building a biological database for research use and operates overseas entry support programs to assist the global inclinations of domestic security firms, which are mostly financially weak start-up firms. KISA helps these companies participate in overseas exhibitions and translates product manuals and user interfaces. At the same time, multilateral support has been given for their overseas marketing activities and analytical reports on technological trends and other information about major strategic markets such as China and Japan have been provided. As part of such support, a multi-lingual portal site (English, Chinese and Japanese) was built for the promotion of domestic security firms and their products. Through this site, global awareness of the domestic industry and products is expected to rise and overseas investment will be active.
Q. It has heen pointed out that the domestic industry's response to viruses and worms is insufficient. What is your opinion and do you any special measures
A:A. Dozens of new worms and viruses are spread every day and about 10 software vulnerability cases have been reported each day recently. The KrCERT issues early warnings or works to stop attacks based on expected infection rates and the expected effect on telecommunications networks. This is the case in other countries. As far as special measures, there are password registration, latest patch software maintenance, real-time vaccine program installation and PC firewall implementation. As for Trojan viruses, such as Peep, spread by e-mailing, PC users should be more careful when they attach files.
Q. Would you tell us about your policy toward public key infrastructure (PKI) and support for digital signature-related companies
A: As a policy to facilitate safe cyber transactions, the government is expanding the use of public certificates to enhance the safety of Internet banking and stock trading and to expand electronic-government services. For the swift handling of damage compensation, we encourage public endorsement institutions to hold insurance policies. In the longer-term, for fair competition between public certification institutions, independent management of the institutions will be promoted and policies for better charging systems and independent accounting systems will be developed. Furthermore, other measures to boost the public endorsement market are in preparation. Trial projects for the international digital signature business are being pursued to give the domestic industry overseas opportunities and enhanced support will be provided to companies creating new endorsement services.
Q. Please explain your basic policies to encourage Korea to become a global security stronghold; such as practical education to train ood hackers'.
A: Training "good hackers"is not an easy matter and needs a careful approach as it could bring massive criticism. KISA endeavors to train experts to respond well to Internet hacking and other intrusion incidents through different programs from other institutions. Educational courses include CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) building and operation and practical training for hacking and virusresponse to server managers of small and medium-sized firms and wired and wireless telecommunications service providers. In addition, KISA runs an information protection technology training center to upgrade knowledge levels and response capabilities through field study.
