Korea to train 3,000 `cyber sheriffs`

The government will train 3,000 "cyber sheriffs" by next year to protect the country from future cyber attacks, officials said yesterday.

Cyber sheriffs are trained experts capable of maintaining cyber security for businesses from cyber attacks and malicious hackers. The government plans to encourage colleges to open intensive courses to train cyber experts. Graduates of the courses will be hired by government offices and businesses in the future, officials said.

According to the plan, the National Intelligence Service is to take a leading role when cyber attacks are launched. They will cooperate with other government offices and businesses to minimize damage from the possible "cyber terrorists."



Separately, the Defense Ministry is to form an Army unit to fight against cyber attacks by another country`s military.

The Korea Communications Commission plans a nation-wide publicity campaign on cyber terrorism.

The comprehensive plan on enhancing cyber security comes two months after cyber attacks that severely slowed or disrupted the nation`s government agencies, banks and internet sites.

Although the so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks left no significant damage, investigators have failed to find the origin of the attacks.

"The July 7 DDoS attacks demonstrated the country`s vulnerability and offered the government a chance to reexamine its countermeasures on cyber terrorism. They also raised concerns on security management of personal computers as well," a government official said.

The government plans to review the legal framework on reinforcing control of programs designed to attack other computers. It also plans to expand state spending on enhancing cyber security.

Korea is a leading country for information technology and one of the most concentrated markets for high-speed internet.

The country has about 16 million broadband internet subscribers, which accounts for more than a third of the population.

(christory@heraldm.com)



By Cho Chung-un