Image: CDCOE
South Korea’s intelligence agency said on Thursday the country had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) cyber defense group, becoming the organization’s first Asian country.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that South Korea, together with Canada and Luxembourghas been admitted NATO Collaborative Cyber Defense Center (CCDCOE), A consulting organization based in Tallinn, Estonia, that supports NATO and member states with interdisciplinary research, training and exercises on cyber defense.
The advisory organization was established in 2008 by NATO members, on the initiative of Estonia, in response to the country’s sufferings. paralyzes cyber attacks allegedly committed by Russia.
With the addition of three new member states, the CCDCOE now has a total of 32 members – 27 NATO patrons and five contributing members, including South Korea, which are not part of NATO.
South Korea’s NIS said it has been working to become a member of CCDCOE since 2019 to gain expertise in cyber attack response to protect the country’s backbone infrastructure and build global strategy.
The intelligence agency said it plans to send more staff to the center and expand the scope of joint training.
The NIS notes that cyber threats are causing enormous damage to individuals and countries that require close global cooperation to respond, the NIS noted, adding that it will work closely together. with future CCDCOE members.
Even before becoming an official member of the center, Korea participated in the CCDCOE’s large-scale live-fire cyber defense exercise, Shield is lockedwhere thousands of experts from member and partner countries come together to defend a fictional country against simulated cyberattacks.
In the past, South Korea has suffered numerous cyberattacks with targets ranging from state nuclear research institutes to electronic money companies, most of which is attributed to North Korean hacking groups.
Meanwhile, earlier in March, the 27 CCDCOE donor countries voted to accept Ukraine at the center as a contributing party.
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