[PHP Security Emergency] Criticism pours in at audit... "Government response is slow and complacent"

Bae Kyunghoon: "I strongly agree with calls to reorganize the cybersecurity control tower system"

Sharp criticism from both the ruling and opposition parties was directed at the government's response to the PHP vulnerability incident. The government said it would develop a comprehensive, interagency response plan and reorganize its control tower.

At the National Assembly's audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT by the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee on October 23, Seo Cheon-ho of the People Power Party said, "It is disappointing that, despite championing the goal of becoming one of the world's three leading AI powers, the government says it only became aware of the PHP incident on October 21." He added, "The response has been far too slow, and the government's view of the recent cyberterrorism incident is far too complacent."

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyunghoon answers lawmakers' questions during a parliamentary audit before the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee on the 6th. Yonhap News Agency

On October 21, a critical security vulnerability was discovered in PHP, a programming language. PHP is an open-source programming language widely used to build and operate websites. The vulnerability is critical because it could allow hackers to access servers and execute arbitrary commands without logging in or completing any authentication procedures. In response, the PHP Foundation rushed to release a security patch to address the vulnerability.

Bae Kyunghoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, responded to Seo's question by saying, "As soon as the PHP Foundation announced the vulnerability, we took action an hour later." He added, "We notified companies about the patch for the vulnerability."

Choi Hyungdoo, a fellow People Power Party member, criticized the response, saying, "A digital AI powerhouse like ours should have detected this activity in advance, before the patch became available." He added, "All we did was mechanically announce that a patch was available."

Criticism also came from the ruling party. Han Jun-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea called Lee Sang-jung, president of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), to testify and asked about KISA's response and whether it had identified any public systems exposed as vulnerable in the incident. Han said, "The important question is not simply whether an alert was issued, but how quickly vulnerable public systems were actually identified and protected."

Han also told Deputy Prime Minister Bae, "Problems like this could continue to recur," and called for "remedial measures."

Lee Ju-hee, another member of the Democratic Party of Korea, also criticized the response, saying, "In just the past two months, things have reached the point where we have to ask which places haven't been breached." She added, "AI-powered hacking attacks are advancing rapidly, while our government's response is highly disorganized and slow."

Deputy Prime Minister Bae said, "I strongly agree with the criticism that the cybersecurity control tower system needs to be reorganized." He added, "We are reviewing a comprehensive, interagency response plan and related organizational restructuring, going beyond a response centered on the National Security Office."

He added, "I believe we need to develop fundamental measures that go beyond the PHP issue," and said he would report on relevant plans soon.

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