The importance of digital forensics is growing by the day. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s privacy watchdog has launched a digital forensics center to professionally collect, analyze and manage electronic evidence from personal data breaches, amid a rapid increase in hacking-related incidents across the country.
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) held an opening ceremony for the Digital Forensic Center at the Government Complex in Seoul on Wednesday. The facility is designed to strengthen the agency’s investigative capacity as large-scale data leaks continue to disrupt the telecommunications, e-commerce and retail sectors.
According to the commission, 396 data-leak notifications were filed between January and November this year, up about 30 percent from 307 cases in all of last year. About 64 percent of this year’s incidents were caused by hacking.
“A series of massive breaches at telecom and retail companies has sharply heightened overall privacy risks in the digital environment,” the PIPC said.
Personal Information Protection Commission Chairperson Song Kyung-hee unveils the nameplate of the commission’s Digital Forensics Center at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno District on December 10. (Image provided by the Personal Information Protection Commission)
To keep pace with increasingly sophisticated hacking techniques, the agency invested 1.6 billion won and spent the past 11 months building the forensics center. The facility will allow investigators to directly secure digital evidence from personal information processing systems during a major breach.
With dedicated tools, PIPC officials will be able to more precisely analyze the cause, scope and scale of data leaks, improving both investigative accuracy and oversight. All collected evidence will be managed under standardized procedures for acquisition, analysis, storage and disposal to ensure reliability of findings.
“Public anxiety has grown with repeated large-scale leaks involving companies such as SK Telecom and Coupang,” said PIPC Chairperson Song Kyung-hee. “The new forensic center will enable us to rigorously determine the cause and impact of major incidents.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
