Reaching for the Stars With Digital Convergence ... - Korea IT Times

2006-03-12006.3.410:47AM페이지6001채널맥(3443-0701)
Publisher’s Message
Editorial
Wishing Korean Firms Success at CeBIT 2006 Hannover!
Expected “M1 Project” to Herald the $30,000 Per Capita Era
Netizens’ Privacy Under Threat
With the “M1 Project,” the Korean government is one step closer
toward realizing its goal of being “Mobile No.1 Country in the
World.” We are keeping an eye on the fact that Korea’s mobile industry
technology and market competitiveness are being considered as the most
promising field to accomplish earlier than expected per capita national income
of $20,000 and the entry into the $30,000 era. We would like to urge the
Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) to further efforts which are
under way under the slogan of “100% M-Literacy,” as well as “0% M-Virus” in
order to accomplish 10 million mobile broadband subscribers, and to secure
30% of the world’s terminal market, 50% of the world mobile terminal core
parts market, as well as 15% of the global B3G system market.
Kim Tae-sub
In addition to this M1 Project, MIC’s Wibro & DMB Overseas Promotion Chairman and Publisher
Bureau activities also are attracting hot interest from associated business circles,
as this is considered to be the watershed year for Korea’s DMB or Wibro overseas inroads. As the
newly established Bureau’s Director-General points out, Korea’s approach to the overseas markets
through a combination of the cutting edges of DMB and Wibro is expected to pay off in a race with
Europe’s DVB-H, whose framework is inferior, including its weak points in terms of sports real
game relay etc. in comparison with our DMB which shows its strengths in sports game relay and disaster
warning systems. We believe that Korea DMB’s edge should convince foreign mobile network
operators that our DMB could offer golden business opportunities in Europe.
Also, since the government selected intelligent robots as one of the 10 new growth engines of the
economy, it is necessary to make the best use of investment and adequately assign the roles to be
taken up by those seeking to commercialize the technologies. To highlight the importance of robot
power, in this month’s issue we feature a special contribution by ETRI president Yim Chu-hwan. As
he explained in detail, the government for example needs to promote trial projects with public procurement
programs and provide assistance to SMEs to streamline the investment and create a new
market. Above all, it needs to facilitate businesses to have a mindset to make continued investments.
Moreover, comprehensive government assistance is required so that division of roles among participants
can be well-organized.
On the overseas exhibition front, the CeBIT 2006 Hannover, Germany which will kick off from
March 9, is promising to offer golden opportunities for Korea’s large IT-related companies as well
as SMEs, opening the stage for displaying latest technologies of digital convergence. In that respect,
the Cover Story of the March issue of The Korea IT Times explores some of the benefits which the
2006 CeBIT 2006 will provide Korean participants, as its includes their state-of-the-art latest technologies
and products plus an in-depth report, by president Eugene Jun, the Incheon Information
Technology Industry Promotion Agency, regarding the CeBIT 2006.
We wish all participating companies success in Hannover!
Kim Tae-sub
The thorny issue of Internet privacy and identity theft
has again been making headlines in South Korea over
the past weeks, following the disclosure that hackers had
stolen the identities of more than 200,000 people who
had registered for the popular online game, Lineage.
More than two million Koreans are apparently registered
users of the game, owned by the
company NCSoft.
This breach of privacy
predictably resulted in a public
outrage over the issue of identity
security, which has forced the
government to step in and take
measures to protect Netizens from
such crimes.
The Ministry of Information
and Communication (MIC)
therefore announced on Feb. 16
that it would launch an antiidentification
theft campaign by
reviewing subscription policies of
100,000 local websites to check
whether they leaked resident
registration numbers and other
personal information. In addition, the ministry is
considering banning Internet sites from using the
resident numbers for confirming the identification of
new subscribers.
NCSoft, South Korea’s largest game company, said
that it would adopt a mobile-phone certification system
after receiving severe damage to its credibility. The firm
planned to implement the new system by the end of
February, which will prevent hackers from using other
peoples’ personal information to create game accounts.
Besides NCSoft, most of Korea’s gaming portals or
Internet sites are mandating new subscribers to provide
their names and resident registration numbers. When
ending up in the hands of criminals, citizenship numbers
become dangerous because they include so much
personal, sensitive information. The 13-digit number
system used on Koreans’ resident registration cards is a
combination of birth date, gender, the first registration
region and registration order.
In this sense, the MIC faces a dilemma because
frequent use of resident numbers is risky - yet the realname
system is needed to stop unscrupulous Web users
from posting libelous photographs,
video footage or remarks, which is
another emerging social problem.
For this reason, the MIC last
year introduced a new online
identification system based on five
alternative types of foolproof ID to
replace the resident numbers.
However, this praiseworthy
initiative has not been widely
accepted because most Internet
portals refuse to adopt any one of
them, claiming it would impose a
substantial financial burden to set
up new databases. In fact, they have
no obligation to do so because the
policy is just a guideline, not a
coercive measure.
In this climate, NCSoft also looks set to phase in a
new system while, at the same time, neglecting the MIC
project. Instead of moving to one of the five new
alternatives, it has decided to complicate things for
identity thieves while basically depending on the use of
resident numbers. The new sign-up system, which will
be introduced by NCSoft, will require people to enter
their mobile phone numbers together with resident
numbers.
Although the MIC has yet to decide whether or not it
will make it compulsory for firms to adopt the new
formula, it is clear that urgent and decisive intervention
by government is needed to prevent a repetition of the
Lineage fiasco. The measures introduced by Lineage
and its counterparts are unlikely to be sufficient
deterrence to the new breed of Cyber criminals.
6 _ March 2006 KOREA IT TIMES
KOREA IT TIMES March 2006 _ 7