84% of Government-Funded Research Institute Servers Excluded from Security Checks... Bae Kyung-hoon: “Swift Inspections”

[Financial News] At least eight out of every 10 servers at government-funded research institutes under the Ministry of Science and ICT were found to have been excluded from this year’s security vulnerability inspections. Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, said he would promptly inspect the institutes’ servers and draw up countermeasures.
Lee Hoon-gi, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker representing Incheon Namdong B and serving on the National Assembly of South Korea’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, pointed out the state of server security vulnerability inspections at government-funded research institutes and called for countermeasures at a comprehensive parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT held on the 23rd.
According to data the Ministry of Science and ICT submitted to Lee’s office, just 3,025 (15.9%) of the 19,041 servers held by 23 government-funded research institutes were counted as targets for vulnerability inspections this year. The remaining 16,016 (84.1%) were not included in the inspections.
A total of 34,536 vulnerabilities were found on the servers counted as inspection targets. All 23 government-funded research institutes were found to be addressing the vulnerabilities.
Lee urged that “security vulnerabilities on all servers at government-funded research institutes be inspected promptly.” Deputy Prime Minister Bae replied, “We will inspect the servers at government-funded research institutes for vulnerabilities as quickly as possible.”
Lee also cited the personal information leak at TVING. He said, “TVING also failed to fix vulnerabilities found in a simulated hacking test, and 39.54 million pieces of personal information were leaked,” and pointed out that “security management at government-funded research institutes, which hold national core technologies and research data in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, biotechnology, nuclear power and space, is extremely serious.”
Deputy Prime Minister Bae said, “We will conduct a thorough inspection and report on countermeasures.”


[email protected] Yoon Hong-jip Reporter