Science Committee Calls for Strategic Response to 'Mythos Shock'... "Must Be Integrated into National Strategy"

Ryoo Jemyung: "Security Enhancements to Be Reflected in Next Year's Budget"

Ryu Jemyung, Vice Minister of Science and ICT, is responding to lawmakers' questions at the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee plenary session held at the National Assembly on the 28th. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

With growing global concerns that Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, "Mythos," could be exploited for hacking, calls have been raised for the government to accelerate its response.

At the plenary session of the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee of the National Assembly on the 28th, Assemblywoman Lee Juhee of the Democratic Party of Korea stated, "The real issue is whether South Korea's security system will function properly when AI threats like Mythos become a reality," urging for a strategic response. She added, "Concrete measures such as a dedicated promotion system, budget allocation, training of professionals, and scaling up AI security should be integrated into a national strategy."

In particular, Assemblyman Lee Haemin of the Homeland Innovation Party stressed the urgency for South Korea to gain access rights to Mythos. He noted, "While the UK, in addition to the United States, has secured access to Mythos through the AI Safety Institute (AISI), South Korea, which aims to become a top-three AI powerhouse globally, has not been able to participate in Anthropic's Glasswing Project." He also pointed out that the government's mid- to long-term security technology development plan is set for after 2027, meaning that legal and institutional frameworks are lagging behind the pace of technological advancements.

Addressing these concerns, Ryoo Jemyung, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "We are exploring the possibility of participating in the Glasswing Project," adding, "We are already responding by notifying chief information security officers nationwide to strengthen their security measures."

Vice Minister Ryoo emphasized, "It is necessary to reflect the overall enhancement of the security system in next year's budget planning," and highlighted the importance of taking simultaneous actions, such as providing consulting and distributing guidelines to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Meanwhile, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyunghoon said via social media earlier in the day, "AI is changing the very rules of offense and defense in cybersecurity." He reported, "Within the scope of what can be made public, our review of the latest model's cyber capabilities confirmed that it is possible to identify vulnerabilities and construct attack scenarios to a considerable degree through prompting alone, without any advanced coding."

Listing large-scale vulnerability response, strengthening the security checks of public systems, and participation in Anthropic's Glasswing Project as short-term tasks, Vice Prime Minister Bae added, "In the mid- to long term, we will establish a system where AI defends against AI, and will accelerate the transition to zero-trust-based security."

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