"Cyberterrorism Surges in the Last 5 Years... Police Need to Strengthen Capabilities Including Expanding Investigation Personnel"

2,270 Cases in 2016 → 4,344 Cases Last Year
Arrest Rate Stays in the 20% Range... Only 109 Cyber Investigation Personnel in Provincial Police Agencies
Rep. Lee Hyung-seok "Need to Establish an Efficient Cooperation System"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] As the KT network outage that occurred on the morning of the 25th is presumed to have been caused by a large-scale DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, concerns have been raised about the need to expand police investigation personnel amid the surge in cyberterrorism.

According to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Lee Hyung-seok, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, cyberterrorism crimes increased sharply from 2,270 cases in 2016 to 4,344 cases last year. However, during the same period, the number of arrests made by the police decreased from 1,047 to 991. The arrest rate last year was only 21.0%.

In particular, ransomware damage, which paralyzes systems and demands money as a condition for lifting the paralysis, surged sixfold from 22 cases in 2016 to 127 cases last year. The average damage amount during the same period also increased from 48.78 million KRW to 182.46 million KRW.

Nevertheless, Lee pointed out that the number of cybercrime investigation personnel in police agencies nationwide is only 109. These personnel are responsible not only for cyberterrorism crimes (information and communication network intrusion crimes) but also for crimes using information and communication networks (such as fraud and financial crimes) and illegal content crimes (such as cyber sexual violence and gambling), resulting in a shortage of manpower and difficulty in keeping up with the evolving nature of crimes with specialized investigative capabilities.

Lee emphasized, "Cyberterrorism crimes cause enormous damage regardless of whether they target the public or private sectors and can also pose a threat to national security," adding, "To prevent crimes, stop the spread of damage, and improve arrest rates, it is necessary to reallocate police personnel and establish an efficient cooperation system with related organizations such as the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.