Limit the North’s Internet access

The government has announced that North Korea was behind the March 20 cyberattacks against three major television networks and two financial companies in Seoul.

A joint response team comprised of the government, military and civilian sectors said that a cyberattack unit under the Reconnaissance General Bureau of North Korea had committed malicious cyberterrorism on main servers and personal computers by erasing more than 48,000 documents after thoroughly preparing to plant malignant code for as long as eight months.

It is fortunate that the government found out who’s accountable for the attack. But more importantly, the government should come up with a fundamental solution to deal with the ever-growing danger in cyberspace before it’s too late. The government must also demand appropriate compensation for the damage from the North and give a stern warning to Pyongyang. Since its first distributed-denial-of-service attacks on 35 Web sites in South Korea and America on July 7, 2009, North Korea has been waging gruesome cyberwar against South Korea.

As a result, South Korea is under constant danger, which sharply increases the possibility that our economy and society could face a big crisis due to the North’s reckless cyberterrorism.

Cyberterrorism has already become an intractable nuisance around the world. Yet we can hardly find a case in which a state is actively engaged in the newest forms of attack.

As the North tries to take advantage of cyberterrorism, it cannot avoid the dishonor of being a rouge state.

North Korea asked for the latest cyberattacks by Anonymous on its major state institutions. The international hacking group attacked North Korea on the grounds that Pyongyang poses a serious threat to world peace.

Under such circumstances, the international community needs to jointly put the brakes on various types of state-sponsored cyberterrorism in North Korea and elsewhere. For instance, international society can restrict cyberterrorists from accessing the Internet.

Internet networks are global resources used widely in modern society. All the people around the world cannot and should not allow countries like North Korea to exploit the global public asset for terrorist actions.

The government must consider proposing the initiative to the UN Security Council as soon as possible.