Seoul, South Korea―IT21 Global Conference―A 30-year-old academic organization comprising 19,500 information technology researchers across South Korea kicked off its annual conference on Wednesday. This year’s event has been expanded to include 52 sessions over three days, with a particular focus on six national strategic technologies, including cybersecurity.
The Korea Information Processing Society (KIPS) was founded in 1993 with the aim of contributing to the nation’s IT industry by establishing research foundations in information processing. Over the years, it has grown into a major academic community with 16 research subgroups, including the Data Privacy Research Group, and has more than 350 universities and companies as its members. KIPS publishes three periodic journals, including the ‘Journal of Information Processing Systems.’
“Since KIPS first launched the ‘IT21 Global Conference’ in 1996, our annual gathering has pioneered the way in increasing national competitiveness in IT,” said Paek Yun-heung, President of KIPS and Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University, during the conference’s opening ceremony. “With top experts in the tech field as our speakers, we will be able to discuss how the latest advancements can be applied to the industry and review government policies in line with these developments,” Paek added.
This year’s conference saw the highest participation to date, with around 500 researchers registered both in-person and online. Additionally, nine government agencies and research institutions co-hosted the event, including the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), the National Information Society Agency (NIA), the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI), the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), the Software Policy & Research Institute (SPRI), and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).
Among the various sessions, cybersecurity gained significant attention, with scholars participating in 16 different sessions related to security and defense.
On the first day of the event, the improvement of the network isolation policy drew particular interest from the audience. Network isolation, often referred to as network separation, is a tactic that divides a network into separate segments. In response to increasing cyber threats originating from North Korea, the South Korean government implemented a nationwide network isolation policy in the public sector in 2006. This policy requires all public officials to use separate networks when accessing internal or external resources.
While the nation has benefited from this strict policy, it has become apparent that South Korea will struggle to adopt cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, or advance its administrative infrastructure to defend against evolving cyberattacks without adjusting the policy. To address this, the South Korean government formed a taskforce earlier this year. Three experts from the taskforce, including Kim Chang-hoon, a Professor at Daegu University, took the stage at IT21 to share details about the policy improvements.
Furthermore, in a separate session at the conference, Lee Woong-bi, an official from MSIT, revealed the government’s plan to launch an ‘AI Safety Research Institute’ on July 3. According to Lee, the AI Safety Research Institute will focus on developing safety frameworks and verification mechanisms related to AI technology.
Last February, MSIT announced 12 national strategic technologies that have a direct impact on national security. These include the fields of semiconductors, rechargeable batteries, mobility, nuclear power, biotechnology, cybersecurity, AI, and quantum technology.
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