ID :
190244
Wed, 06/22/2011 - 05:28
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/190244
The shortlink copeid
S. Korea's military in battle against Internet
SEOUL (Yonhap) - Besides keeping close tabs on its No. 1 enemy, North Korea, South Korea's military is grappling with a new headache these days: its own soldiers inadvertently leaking sensitive military information online.
Armed with high-tech computer skills, military censors monitor online communities as well as social networks on a daily basis to find whether sensitive military information is leaked and track who uploaded it.
Photos and video clips that depict military life are strictly banned online but soldiers often violate the regulations mostly to brag about their tough military service.
Since early this year, the Defense Ministry's Criminal Investigation Command (CIC) has ferreted out a total of 1,029 soldiers who violated the ban. An estimated 300 were disciplined.
"In most cases, our probe found that enlisted soldiers uploaded photos showing military subjects to get attention from anonymous Internet users or leave memories of their military service," said Lt. Col. Hwang Bo-geun, chief investigator at the CIC's cyber crime division.
Hwang noted that most of those violators were poorly informed about military guidelines on cyber security or had little understanding about how much damage such unauthorized postings may cause.
In one case, an Army sergeant was reprimanded for posting photos of himself taunting and harassing some junior soldiers. Some uploaded videos showed front-line guard posts near the border with North Korea.
The military's guidelines include a ban on taking pictures of anything that show military installations or hardware. Soldiers are also prohibited from writing about their military life or duty.
Although no significant security leaks have been reported so far, the issue creates a new problem in the world's most wired country, where North Korea's cyber attacks have raised national security concerns.
Two years of military service is mandatory for all healthy young South Korean men. Before conscription, surfing the Internet, blogging and using social networks were part of their everyday lives.
In South Korea, the Internet is almost as ubiquitous as electricity. More than 90 percent of homes have high-speed Internet connections, and Internet cafes known as "PC rooms" are everywhere throughout the country.
Conscripts are banned from possessing mobile phones or digital cameras while on duty, and their on-base access to the Internet are strictly prohibited. But it's realistically impossible to ban them using the Internet while they are off duty, according to military censors.
It is an open secret that some soldiers take photos or videos of them in barracks or during military exercises with smartphones or digital cameras they secretly brought in and upload them on the Internet while on leave or after being discharged.
"With the advent of social networking sites, the military is facing a dilemma between invasion of privacy and control of classified information," Koo Tae-eon, an attorney at the law firm Kim & Chang, said at a recent defense security forum.
That means the military is vulnerable to possible security leaks that could unwittingly help North Korea, a country that is extremely poor but known to run a large cyber warfare unit to collect information about its southern rival.
South Korean defense officials said they will map out new measures to enhance the "cyber discipline" among soldiers.
At the security forum, Lt. Gen. Bae Deuk-shik, the nation's top military spy chief, said that South Korea is coming under growing cyber attacks from North Korea.
Bae confirmed that North Korea was behind a cyber attack that disrupted the computer system of one of South Korea's largest banks in April as well as two other similar attacks that targeted government and corporate Web sites.
Intelligence officials here believe that North Korea runs a 1,000-strong cyber warfare unit under the direct control of its top intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau.
"North Korea is strategically nurturing its cyber warfare unit," Bae said. "This unit has shown the potential for attacks that are larger in scale and more intelligent by pinpointing a specific target."
Armed with high-tech computer skills, military censors monitor online communities as well as social networks on a daily basis to find whether sensitive military information is leaked and track who uploaded it.
Photos and video clips that depict military life are strictly banned online but soldiers often violate the regulations mostly to brag about their tough military service.
Since early this year, the Defense Ministry's Criminal Investigation Command (CIC) has ferreted out a total of 1,029 soldiers who violated the ban. An estimated 300 were disciplined.
"In most cases, our probe found that enlisted soldiers uploaded photos showing military subjects to get attention from anonymous Internet users or leave memories of their military service," said Lt. Col. Hwang Bo-geun, chief investigator at the CIC's cyber crime division.
Hwang noted that most of those violators were poorly informed about military guidelines on cyber security or had little understanding about how much damage such unauthorized postings may cause.
In one case, an Army sergeant was reprimanded for posting photos of himself taunting and harassing some junior soldiers. Some uploaded videos showed front-line guard posts near the border with North Korea.
The military's guidelines include a ban on taking pictures of anything that show military installations or hardware. Soldiers are also prohibited from writing about their military life or duty.
Although no significant security leaks have been reported so far, the issue creates a new problem in the world's most wired country, where North Korea's cyber attacks have raised national security concerns.
Two years of military service is mandatory for all healthy young South Korean men. Before conscription, surfing the Internet, blogging and using social networks were part of their everyday lives.
In South Korea, the Internet is almost as ubiquitous as electricity. More than 90 percent of homes have high-speed Internet connections, and Internet cafes known as "PC rooms" are everywhere throughout the country.
Conscripts are banned from possessing mobile phones or digital cameras while on duty, and their on-base access to the Internet are strictly prohibited. But it's realistically impossible to ban them using the Internet while they are off duty, according to military censors.
It is an open secret that some soldiers take photos or videos of them in barracks or during military exercises with smartphones or digital cameras they secretly brought in and upload them on the Internet while on leave or after being discharged.
"With the advent of social networking sites, the military is facing a dilemma between invasion of privacy and control of classified information," Koo Tae-eon, an attorney at the law firm Kim & Chang, said at a recent defense security forum.
That means the military is vulnerable to possible security leaks that could unwittingly help North Korea, a country that is extremely poor but known to run a large cyber warfare unit to collect information about its southern rival.
South Korean defense officials said they will map out new measures to enhance the "cyber discipline" among soldiers.
At the security forum, Lt. Gen. Bae Deuk-shik, the nation's top military spy chief, said that South Korea is coming under growing cyber attacks from North Korea.
Bae confirmed that North Korea was behind a cyber attack that disrupted the computer system of one of South Korea's largest banks in April as well as two other similar attacks that targeted government and corporate Web sites.
Intelligence officials here believe that North Korea runs a 1,000-strong cyber warfare unit under the direct control of its top intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau.
"North Korea is strategically nurturing its cyber warfare unit," Bae said. "This unit has shown the potential for attacks that are larger in scale and more intelligent by pinpointing a specific target."
