China’s Easy Imitation

The Goophone, a knockoff of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.
The Goophone, a knockoff of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

 

South Korea is receiving cyber threats to the extent that the county is in the runner-up position after the U.S. The main reason behind this phenomenon is drawing a lot of attention, which lies in monetary gains through technology leakage.

Computer network attacks such as hacking or Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) lead to the outflow of core technology like product blueprints, which ultimately appears in the form of fake products in China.

“Korea's cyber threats are considered to be very serious. The country has been receiving the second-largest number of attacks, following the US,” said Dave Merkel, CTO of Cybersecurity firm FireEye on August 21. He pointed out, “Even though Korean companies recognize cyber threats, they do not invest much in security to respond to those threats. So, I'm very worried.”

In particular, hackers who mostly target Korea have not only political motives, but also industrial purposes such as technology leakage.

The CTO remarked, “Korea is one of the most technically advanced in the hi-tech industry with global companies like Samsung and LG.” He added, “In addition to attacking large companies, hackers steal blueprints and secret information about products by hacking or infecting computers of small and medium-sized business partners of those large firms.”

Cyber threats aimed at stealing Korea's core technologies target not only IT but also pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and content industries. According to Dave Merkel, stolen information appears in the form of counterfeit products in China within one or two days. When China announced that it developed its own stealth fighters by allegedly copying those made by Lockheed Martin, the U.S. government brought legal action against Chinese soldiers, citing thefts of blueprints through hacking.

The CTO said, “Large companies invest heavily in security, but small and medium-sized business partners do not recognize that they are victims. So, there are a lot of cases where they are not aware of the fact that they were hacked.” He stressed, “To protect industrial secrets, security investments in large firms and business partners are required at the same time.”

Merkel added that if small and medium-sized business partners cannot afford investment in security, large companies should give financial support for a security system to prevent the outflow of secret information.

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