Ministry of Science and ICT to Proactively Respond to Cyber Incidents... Incident Investigation Committee Launched in Advance

Incident Investigation and Deliberation Committee Holds Kickoff Meeting

Ex Officio Investigation of Major Incidents Without Company Report

"Swift Response System Established Early On"

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it had preemptively convened the Incident Investigation and Deliberation Committee and held its first meeting on May 19, 2026.

The Incident Investigation and Deliberation Committee is a statutory committee newly established under the amended Information and Communications Network Act, which was revised in response to a series of incidents that occurred last year. Through deliberation by the committee, major incidents with clear indications of compromise or significant risk of damage can be subject to an ex officio investigation, even without a report from the company involved. The committee operates in accordance with the legislative intent to enable the government to proactively respond to cyber threats.

Ministry of Science and ICT logo. Ministry of Science and ICT

Although the amended Information and Communications Network Act will take effect on October 1, 2026, the Ministry explained that the committee was launched early to respond to any major incidents that may occur before the law is enforced and to establish a public-private collaborative response system. The move is aimed at preemptively responding to increasing cybersecurity concerns caused by AI-based attacks, such as those using Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, Mythos.

The committee consists of a total of 13 members, primarily private sector experts from academia and security companies, as well as personnel from specialized agencies including the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), Financial Security Institute, and the National Security Research Institute. To ensure fairness in deliberation, members are restricted from participating if any conflict of interest with the companies under investigation is identified.

For future incidents, the committee will deliberate on the following: the need for an ex officio investigation into whether an incident has occurred; the necessity of forming a joint public-private investigation team; matters related to on-site investigations (such as workplace access); and any other issues required for incident investigation. Until the law is formally enforced on October 1, the committee will serve as an advisory body to support incident response, and will focus on establishing a framework so that it can be immediately converted into a deliberation committee after the law takes effect.

The first meeting, held on the same day, was attended by Deputy Minister Ryu Jemyung of the Ministry of Science and ICT and private sector committee members, who discussed the committee's deliberation methods and operating procedures. The meeting also addressed recent incident trends and ways to strengthen public-private cooperation against AI security threats.

Deputy Minister Ryu Jemyung of the Ministry of Science and ICT stated, "As the advancement of AI technology is expected to accelerate, automate, and sophisticate cyberattacks, rapid identification of causes and proactive response in the early stages of an incident are key to preventing further damage. Even before the law takes effect, we will proactively operate the committee to establish a swift response system early on and build robust and resilient cybersecurity capabilities in the private sector without compromise."

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