Li Ki-joo, the new Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) president, took office as the third president of the agency on Sept. 25 shortly after he received a document of appointment from the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).

Lee said in his inaugural speech that he will devote himself to making KISA a world-class internet and information security agency. He enumerated ramping up of specialization, the establishment of open-door corporate culture, and the strengthening of work efficiency as the efforts needed to achieve this goal. 

Lee said, “These will be put into action the way bricks are laid one by one.”

First of all, he cited the strengthening of specialization as his top priority. Premising that KISA executives and staff members have excellent capabilities, he said his agency will redouble efforts to further harness their specialization through educational and study programs. KISA is also striving to scout gifted manpower from both Korea and abroad. 

ANTI-VOICE PHISHING CENTER°™Lee said KISA plans to establish an anti-voice phishing center designed to stem the number of voice phishing victims during next year. 

Nine telecom carriers will be supplied with a database of public organization telephones in real time and international calls pretending to come from public organizations will be shut down in advance.

The new KISA president said KISA plans to establish a system to analyze and handle spam information blocked from portal sites in addition to its own function of gathering spam information. 

Figures released by KISA showed that the number of spam mails reported to authorities stood at 53 million as of 2011. The figure represented what a few internet users reported, but it was a far cry from the real figure of spam.

He said KISA is seeking to make it obligatory to have companies certified with the Information Security Management System (ISMS) to enhance corporate security standards.

The demand for consulting on the establishment of the ISMS and certification is likely to surge starting from next year, said Lee, adding that KISA plans to ramp up the educating of certification manpower and the revamping of related systems. 

KISA plans to establish a new department in charge of overseeing and coordinating international projects related to broadcasting/telecommunications, internet, and information protection as part of its efforts to make KISA global, Lee said. KISA strives to expand the exporting of information protection expertise while publicizing Korea’ s world-class internet cyberspace security technology to the global society. 

KISA plans to upgrade the app for conducting a self-inspection on the security of smart phones that it began to dole out in September 2011. The agency has changed the name of the app to “Phone Keeper” so that users can utilize it with ease and they plan to distribute the upgraded version soon, a KISA official said. The new version will offer a function for searching for malicious apps in real time and conduct an expedient and precise inspection, and it will have a newly refined design so as to help users find what they want with ease, he said.