The government’s cybersecurity capabilities have been put under fire due to the hacking incident in .. | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #ransomware

The government’s cybersecurity capabilities have been put under fire due to the hacking incident in which personal information of all Korean diplomats is believed to have been leaked. Although cyberattacks are being advanced to a level that threatens national security, discussions on legislation to establish a national response system are rarely speeding up in the National Assembly.

According to the National Assembly’s agenda information system on the 25th, the National Cyber Security Act, which was proposed by Yoo Yong-won, the deputy floor leader of the People’s Power, in July last year, was referred to the competent standing committee in July of the same year, and has been pending for more than a year, only being presented to the bill review subcommittee in February this year.

The main point of the bill is to build a pan-governmental cybersecurity control tower to prevent large-scale hacking incidents reminiscent of a national crisis, and to make it mandatory for ministries to evaluate and respond to security conditions. In addition to Yoo, the deputy floor leader, nine members of the People’s Power Party participated in the proposal.

Lawmakers said, “As each ministry is separating and responding independently according to individual laws under its jurisdiction, there is a limit to the comprehensive response at the pan-government level in the event of a national cybersecurity threat,” adding, “There is no basic law to establish and implement policy directions and countermeasures, causing confusion in the roles of each ministry.”

The lack of discussion on the bill, which should be done quickly for national security, is due to various reasons such as the standing committee to discuss the law and related ministries to be applied when introducing the bill. An official of the National Assembly’s Information Committee explained, “There are a lot of related ministries, and differences between ministries have not been resolved.”

In particular, the amendment calls for strengthening the role of the National Intelligence Service, such as “the head of the National Intelligence Service can use the integrated security control system to conduct security control on each responsible agency or distribute technical information that can detect cybersecurity threats.”

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The National Assembly Information Committee’s review report said, “Governance will be established around the National Assembly and major information on the entire population, such as telecommunications companies and financial companies, will be included in the law, which could lead to unnecessary social controversy, including concerns over private inspections by intelligence agencies.”

The National Assembly Secretariat also suggested to the Intelligence Committee, “Having the National Intelligence Service conduct security control in the area of constitutional institutions may have the effect of being managed and controlled by the National Intelligence Service for cyber operations in the area under its jurisdiction, which could infringe on the principle of separation of powers and the independence of constitutional institutions.”

Concerns by the Financial Services Commission about the revision’s inclusion of more than 500 private financial companies in the “responsible institution” and the Ministry of National Defense’s concern about the military-related organization being included in the “responsible institution” to be able to control the military organization without going through the Ministry of National Defense were also included in the intelligence committee’s review report.

As the review of related laws by major ministries is prolonged, the government’s consistent policy promotion and introduction of a cooperative system are also delayed. Another problem is that the confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties continues at the National Assembly, which has led to a pile of major pending issues, pushing the order of discussion at the National Assembly Standing Committee.

However, it is predicted that the discussion on the preparation of related systems will only speed up as the political sector’s interest in cyber security issues has grown in the wake of the hacking of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The recent leakage of personal information from private companies such as Coupang is also playing a role as a wake-up call in the political circle.

“Cyber attacks are now a major means of modern warfare that threatens the survival of the country, not just hacking,” Yoo said. “The National Assembly should join forces beyond the ruling and opposition parties so that the National Cyber Security Act, which is pending in the standing committee, can be discussed, reviewed, and passed as soon as possible.”