The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) said on Tuesday it has selected six consortia made up of the Ministry of Science and ICT, national and public agencies and security companies, and will push ahead with the 2026 project to support adoption of the national network security system.

The National Network Security Framework (N2SF) classifies national and public agencies’ work information into three levels — classified, sensitive and public — depending on importance. It applies different security levels by classification.

National and public agencies have maintained security by operating 업무망, which handles sensitive data, separately from the internet network under the National Intelligence Service’s network separation policy.

But with the spread of new technologies such as generative AI and cloud, the need is growing for a new security system that can maintain a high level of security while also improving work efficiency.

The National Intelligence Service established the national network security system last year, applying different security levels depending on information importance. It revised the basic national cybersecurity guidelines this year, formalising adoption of the national network security system.

KISA ran a call in March for the 2026 national network security system adoption support project worth 4.5 billion won for national and public agencies and domestic security companies. It said the aim was to support adoption of the system and to help domestic security companies understand new security technologies required under the framework.

After document and presentation evaluations, KISA made a final selection on June 1 of six consortia comprising demand agencies — the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and KEPCO KDN, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Korea Post Office, Korea Expressway Corporation, Korea Real Estate Board and the National Research Foundation of Korea — and security companies that will support adoption of the national network security system information service model at each agency. The selected security companies will support the demand agencies’ adoption of the system for about seven months until December 2026.

KISA also plans to 추진 a verification project in July for central administrative agencies to further assess field applicability and security of the national network security system information service model, including a secure wireless work environment and the use of generative AI.

Lee Yong-pil (이용필), head of KISA’s Digital Threat Prevention Division, said the shift to the national network security system could be a new opportunity for the security industry. He said KISA will actively support efforts to improve field-level understanding of the national network security policy through the project and to help new security technologies settle into real work environments.