21st century society is highly dependent on access to fast and efficient information technology. These days are known as the ‘cyber age’. As a result of the increasing significance of information technology (IT), our attention these days has focused on crimes in cyberspace. One of the latest serious incidences of cyber-attacks was in 2014 when the Korean Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd. (KHNP), site was hacked. Although the attempted sabotage ended in failure, fear of future attacks is growing amongst our citizens every day.

Hackers are responsible for these attacks and as a result, most people have a negative view of them. However, the time may have come for us to look at them differently.

A ‘hacker’ is normally an engineer who has a talent in working with computers or in programming and seeks to exploit weaknesses in computer systems or networks. Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, are all famous computer engineers that were also considered hackers in their early days. However, are they what you think of when you picture a ‘hacker’ today? The answer is no. They are considered ‘white hackers’ and are not the “black hackers” we hear of causing mayhem for people, businesses and governments worldwide.

Black hackers use their skills to commit crimes. On the other hand, ‘white hackers’ are like the cyber police and work to catch the black hackers. They establish strategies for hacking prevention using their high levels of computer expertise.

The Japanese drama, ‘Bloody Monday’ deals with a story of a white hacker. The main character named Fujimaru Takagi appears to be a normal high school student, but in reality he is a genius hacker. He began his hacking by attacking the country’s Security Agency, but this only served as a catalyst for him to instead become a part of the agency, so he could use his abilities for the good of his family and country by protecting them from cyber terrorism.

As the fear of cyber terror escalates globally, many countries, like the U.S.A., Israel, China, and North Korea, are in a rush to train cyber forces made up of white hackers fully capable of addressing the oncoming cyber war. So where is South Korea in this race?

Korea is an underdeveloped country in terms of promoting their own army of white hackers. Victims of cyber-crime have been mostly financial agencies. According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service, over ten million of incidences of cyber-crime took place in Korea over the last three years. Nevertheless, only 200 white hackers are employed by the National Intelligence Service, the police, and the Korean Internet and Security Agency. Koreans are rapidly recognizing that well-trained black hacker incidences are on the rise and see the need to foster a solid force of white hackers to combat the problem.

The views on whether or not to promote white hackers are still being debated. However, no suitable alternative option has yet to be proposed. A specialized education curriculum for white hackers should be developed more in order to train people to work in the field for the South Korean government and any promotion of such a program should be conducted with their active support. The time to protect ourselves from this type of crime has long been upon us. Let’s make sure we aren’t left exposed by inaction and the inability to agree on an appropriate response plan.

▲ (Google)