Assemblyman Jo Incheol Proposes Bill to Expand Scope of Information Security Professional Services

Expansion of AI, SW Supply Chain, and Security Professional Services
Establishing a Foundation for Growth in the Information Security Industry
The Need to "Enhance Expertise and Reliability of Domestic Companies"

Representative Jo Incheol

As cyber threats become more sophisticated due to the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) and the growing complexity of software (SW) supply chains, legislation is being pursued to expand the role and scope of work of information security professional service providers in line with current realities.

Assemblyman Jo Incheol of the Democratic Party of Korea announced on the 4th that he had recently sponsored a partial amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Information Security Industry, which includes expanding the designation scope and business areas of information security professional service providers.

Under the current law, the Minister of Science and ICT may designate as a professional service provider any entity that is deemed capable of safely and reliably performing tasks such as vulnerability analysis and assessment, and the establishment of protection measures, for major information and communications infrastructure.

However, because the institutional scope of professional services is limited mainly to infrastructure, voices inside and outside the industry have pointed out that private security companies find it difficult to fully play their role in areas where security demand is rapidly increasing, such as AI systems and software supply chains.

Assemblyman Jo's amendment seeks to address these limitations by expanding the scope of work that information security professional service providers can perform from the current focus on vulnerability analysis to the overall range of security work, including information security evaluation and diagnosis, security consulting, and the establishment of protection measures.

In addition, the bill explicitly includes in the law areas where demand for information security is expected to increase significantly in the future, such as AI system security and SW supply chain security, so that they are covered by the designation of professional services. In sectors such as finance and healthcare, where a high level of security expertise and reliability is required, the Minister of Science and ICT will be able to designate additional professional service areas at the request of the relevant central administrative agencies, thereby establishing an institutional foundation for flexible responses to a rapidly changing industrial environment.

This amendment also aims to systematically respond to growing demand for private security investment, which has expanded along with strengthened security regulations following a series of large-scale security breaches, by overhauling the professional service system. Through this, domestic information security companies are expected to be able to participate more broadly in security demand across industries on the basis of their accumulated expertise.

Assemblyman Jo stated, "Cyber threats are rapidly becoming more sophisticated due to the spread of AI and the increasing complexity of SW supply chains, but the current system has failed to fully reflect the role and scope of work of information security professional service providers," adding, "This amendment is an institutional supplement designed to expand the scope of professional services in line with reality so that we can respond more systematically to security demand across the nation and all industries."

He went on to emphasize, "Recently, as large-scale security breaches have occurred one after another, demand for private security investment has also been expanding rapidly. I hope this amendment will provide a foundation for professional responses to the growing security demand and serve as an opportunity to further accumulate expertise and strengthen the competitiveness of domestic information security companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.