The president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, has called this Tuesday for the creation of a broad-reaching structure that "covers the entire Government" with the aim of "protecting public services and critical infrastructure" in the face of the increase in cyberattacks.
With this new institutional architecture, Lee aims to "coordinate" the current powers, which he considers too fragmented among different departments. He has underlined the "limitations" of the current mechanisms to "protect the country" against this type of threat.
"The existing security system, which focuses on inspections and ex post responses and is showing clear limitations," he has said during a meeting of the Council of Ministers, in which he has called for the launch of an integral preventive system against computer attacks.
In this context, he has recalled the recent theft of millions of dollars in a cyberattack against Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, an incident from which North Korea has distanced itself despite the accusations of the United States. "It is also necessary to discuss the creation of a government-level task force that encompasses both the public and private sectors," the South Korean president has defended.
"I ask you to actively consider the creation of a large-scale cyber security body, one that is powerful and effective and that can oversee and coordinate the security functions that are currently dispersed," Lee has insisted, while calling for a deep reform of the current model.
In parallel, the country's National Intelligence Service has begun inspections at more than 2,100 ministries of the central Government, local administrations and public bodies to strengthen protection against the escalation of threats, according to the news agency Yonhap.
Police investigation for data leak
This same Tuesday, the South Korean Police has opened proceedings over the leak of personal data of 168 people linked to the Presidency, among them the head of State himself, on a specialized security website. All of them would have traveled on the presidential plane.
Among the compromised information are data of Lee's wife, senior Executive officials, members of the staff of the Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, members of the Presidential Security Service and journalists in charge of covering the president's agenda.
The leak would include their names in Korean and English, their affiliations, positions, dates of birth, passport numbers and the issue and expiration dates of said documents, which raises concern over security risks.
The affected portal is a platform that allows users to scan files or web addresses to detect malicious code. Likewise, paid members and other users have the ability to download the documents uploaded to the service.
According to the South Korean public broadcaster KBS, the leaked file would contain a complete list of passengers and would be linked to a previous flight between South Korea and Belgium, carried out as part of an official trip, after which the delegation later traveled to Italy and France.