S. Korea Announces Cyber Warfare Command Plans

Published: 26 Jun 2009 11:01
SEOUL - South Korea will launch a cyber warfare command center to fend off attacks on government and military IT networks from North Korea and other countries, officials said June 26.
The plan to create the command center by 2012 was included in a military reform package presented to President Lee Myung-Bak, the defense ministry said, at a time when relations with North Korea are particularly strained.
South Korea's military computer networks are under ever-growing cyber attack.
The South's military security unit said in a report last month that every day the military counters an average of 10,450 hacking attempts and 81,700 computer virus infections.
Experts say South Korea - one of the world's most wired societies - needs an integrated unit to fight cyber attacks by North Korea and China, which run elite hacker units.
In 2004, hackers based in China used information-stealing viruses to break into the computer systems of Seoul government agencies.
Last year, South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo warned his cabinet against what he said were attempts by Chinese and North Korean computer hackers to obtain state secrets.