The government will distribute guidelines and push consulting for small and medium-sized companies to respond to security threats linked to Anthropic's artificial intelligence model Mythos.

Ryu Je-myeong (류제명), second vice minister at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said at a full meeting of the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee on April 28 that it is important above all that SMEs can respond properly. Answering a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Ju-hee (이주희) on response measures for Mythos, Ryu said the government will simultaneously push distribution of guidelines and consulting on steps that corporate chief executives and security officers should take.

Mythos, released as a preview, is known to show outstanding performance in finding security vulnerabilities and carrying out attacks. In the industry, concerns emerged that if misused, Mythos could become a world-class hacker.

The ministry is now discussing ways for the South Korean government and companies to take part in the Mythos Glasswing project, reflecting such concerns. Anthropic is disclosing the Mythos model on a limited basis only to 52 U.S. companies and institutions taking part in Glasswing to conduct defensive-purpose tests.

Ryu said he has issued security monitoring notices to chief information security officers nationwide and is working to raise security levels. He added that the government will actively reflect costs for strengthening security systems when drawing up next year's budget.

An issue involving an International Mobile Subscriber Identity design at LG Uplus was also discussed. LG Uplus has been offering free USIM updates and replacements to all subscribers since April 13 after it became known that it reflected customers' phone numbers in the IMSI.

Asked by Lee about the technical risk, Ryu said there have so far been no cases confirmed as direct damage. He added that vulnerabilities need to be quickly improved as there is a possibility of exposure of location information.