The National Security Office Conducts First Integrated Civil-Military Cyber Crisis Response Drill at UFS

"Government and Private Sector Must Join Forces to Be Fully Prepared"

Soldiers of the Navy 1st Fleet Command are conducting a guided missile mobile launcher deployment exercise on the 20th in the Yangyang-gun area of Gangwon Province as part of the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The National Security Office announced on the 21st that for the first time in this year's Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise, a practical integrated cyber crisis response training involving the public, private companies, and the military was conducted.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, during the 57th Central Integrated Defense Meeting held in January, instructed the establishment of a response system that detects and warns of cyber attacks in advance and regularizes integrated cyber training involving the public, private, and military sectors to support this system.

From this year, cyber crisis response trainings, which were previously conducted individually by ministries and agencies, have been integrated and linked with the Ulchi exercise, expanding participation from the public and private companies in practical integrated training. Notably, this training was planned with the goal of "securing cyber resilience" to proactively prepare for the hybrid warfare pattern that combines recent cyber threats and military actions.

"Proactive Preparation for Hybrid Warfare Patterns"

This training saw large-scale participation from national public institutions such as the National Security Office, National Intelligence Service, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of National Defense, police, National Information Resources Service Agency, Busan Port Authority, Busan Metropolitan City, Daejeon Metropolitan City, as well as the military, local governments, private companies like Hanjin Busan Container Terminal, and private drone clubs.

Unlike last year, the cyber integrated field training, which was conducted at Incheon International Airport, was this time held at the National Information Resources Service Agency in Daejeon and Busan Port, key national infrastructure sites, linked with the Ulchi exercise.

On the 19th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety conducted an emergency recovery drill to quickly restore government24 and community center administrative network services disrupted by anti-state groups, and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries carried out integrated defense training at Busan Port on the same day, including port function recovery, drone interception, and explosive removal in a cyber-physical complex terrorism scenario.

While the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries restored the administrative network and Busan Port systems, related agencies such as the military, police, National Cyber Crisis Management Group, and "Cyber119" conducted hacking investigations and suspect arrests through organic cooperation, simulating real combat situations.

The Jinhae Base Command is conducting a training exercise on the 20th, dropping training mines into the sea around the Jinhae naval port area in Jinhae-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongnam, as part of the 2024 UFS.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Before the field training, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Intelligence Service also conducted training and inspections responding to cyber attacks. The Ministry of Science and ICT carried out a public cyber security campaign from July to August in connection with Information Security Month in July, conducting response training against hacking emails, malware distribution, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting 118 private companies including major telecom and platform companies.

The National Intelligence Service also conducted cyber resilience training for 151 national public institutions from April to July and, from the 13th of this month for two weeks, conducted DDoS attack response training targeting 35 institutions of critical national facilities such as power, finance, railroads, transportation, and medical sectors to check each institution's preparedness against cyber threats.

Wang Yoon-jong, the 3rd Deputy Director of the National Security Office, stated, "Today’s cyber threats do not distinguish between public and private sectors and can combine with attacks on physical spaces to lead to hybrid warfare, so the government and private sectors must unite and be fully prepared." He added, "I hope that the cyber integrated training jointly participated by the public, private, and military sectors conducted during this Ulchi exercise period will become a valuable asset for strong national security."