Infosecurity

South Korea and US strike deal to fight cyber crime

By Alice Kok | 5 May 2009

South Korea and the United States have forged a tentative agreement to join forces in fighting cyber terrorism and securing their defence networks, the Defence Ministry in Seoul said.

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The memorandum of understanding between the allies mainly seeks to facilitate the exchange of knowledge for detecting and fighting cyber terrorism.

According to the agreement, the two sides will hold a conference on their joint readiness against computer hacking at least once a year.

Last month, a high-tech US$300 billion joint strike fighter programme of the US forces and the British Royal Naval had been breached by the GhostNet cyber spy network. Thousands of confidential files on the ‘F-35’ multi-purpose fighter jet had been copied.

South Korea, which operates a weapons system similar to that of the US, took part last year in a US-led international anti-hacking exercise for the first time.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited official sources saying that the North has a “technology reconnaissance team” dedicated to collecting information and disrupting US and South Korean military computer networks.

The team now has about 100 hackers, mostly graduates of a military academy in Pyongyang, it said.