The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) will carry out an organisational reshuffle effective Feb. 9 to push a state task of realising an artificial intelligence (AI) basic society and to protect people’s daily lives from increasingly advanced cyber threats.

Under the reshuffle, KISA reorganised its structure, including creating an AI security industry headquarters, a digital threat prevention headquarters and a ransomware response team. It plans to lay the groundwork for the AI era and strengthen its response capabilities against crimes that harm people’s livelihoods, including ransomware.

KISA set up the AI security industry headquarters to secure key momentum to realise an AI basic society. The unit oversees building an AI security industry ecosystem, from policy-making to fostering the industry, technology development and talent development.

It also launched the digital threat prevention headquarters to strengthen proactive prevention beyond post-incident responses. The unit will focus on overhauling security systems for national infrastructure, including software supply chain security and the National Network Security Framework (N2SF).

The digital threat response headquarters has had its role strengthened to counter increasingly intelligent and organised cyber attacks. KISA expanded its forensic analysis team to create a system capable of swiftly and accurately identifying causes when incidents occur. It also newly formed a ransomware response team to address the continuously rising number of ransomware incidents and to support small and medium-sized companies in security blind spots.

KISA President Lee Sang-joong (이상중) said the reshuffle was a strategic choice to respond proactively to changes in the technology environment represented by AI. He said the agency would concentrate its capabilities to secure global security competitiveness in the AI era and create a digital environment in which people can feel safe.