Digital Silk Road
The Korean government will help local information security companies enter the Middle East by building cooperative networks with the four major countries there.
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) held the Korea-Middle East Cybersecurity Meeting at the main office of the Korea Internet & Security Agency in Seoul on June 4. The event, aimed at facilitating local cybersecurity companies' overseas expansion, was attended by ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
The four ambassadors to Korea and representatives of the MSIP agreed that cooperation between government agencies is important for cybersecurity. After having a chance to better understand cybersecurity in Korea, the participants decided to build a separate cooperative network with each country.
This meeting came on the heels of President Park Geun-hye's official trip to those four countries in the Middle East in March. At the meeting, the MSIP introduced the nation's cybersecurity policies and various kinds of measures to counter cyberattacks. It also presented ways to construct and run localized models to respond to cyberattacks through a tour of the Korea Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center's control room.
In addition, successful cases of overseas expansion by local cybersecurity companies, as well as local products and solutions that are receiving a lot of attention in the Middle East such as CC TVs and access control systems, were also presented.
The Ministry plans to provide full support for exporting localized information security models, from security consulting to pilot and test-bed projects and to joint expansion as part of a strategy for overseas expansion. It will do so by inviting high-ranking officials and public officials related to cybersecurity.
The MSIP is also planning to provide from 1.5 to 4.5 trillion won (US$1.3 to 4.0 billion) worth of support to increase information security exports by 2019 by actively supporting the export of local information security models to Latin America and Africa, in addition to the Middle East.