South Korea Wants to Triple Number of Cyber Security Experts by End of Year

Gov’t to nurture cyber security manpower: The government said Thursday it plans to almost triple the number of software security experts to 200 by the end of this year to better cope with rising cyber attacks.

The plan came after a string of cyber attacks against the websites of the government agencies and major public and private entities this year.

In the latest attack, which Seoul said North Korea was likely behind, hackers infiltrated and shut down the websites of the presidential office, other government offices and news outlets on June 25, 2013, the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Under the envisioned plan, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration will nearly triple the number of security experts in the field of software development to 200 this year. In 2012, the government selected and trained some 70 people.

The experts will be in charge of spotting expected weak points in software programs at their initial stage of development and devise countermeasures so as to prevent them from being targeted for cyber attacks.