According to South Korea's Chosun Ilbo reported on Thursday, the National Intelligence Agency, which is in charge of South Korea's cybersecurity, said on the same day that South Korea officially joined the NATO-affiliated Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) as the agency's 32nd full member, which is also the first time the agency has expanded its membership to countries outside Europe.
South Korea "grabbed the first incense"?
With the official accession of South Korea, some media even directly described South Korea as "grabbing the first incense". But to be precise, the probability only points to "preempting Japan". Japan has also participated in ccdcoE-sponsored "Lock Shield" exercises since last year, and in March, the Japan Self-Defense Force was established to deal with cyber attacks. At the same time, through the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Japan and South Korea have fought fiercely with NATO, and both participated in the NATO foreign ministers' meeting held in Brussels in early April. But there is also a key node, that is, South Korea's president-elect Yoon Seok-yue is about to take office, and there have been many remarks before it, all of which show that he will move closer to the United States. Yonhap News Agency said that South Korea's foreign minister nominee Park Jin said four days ago that it was studying the feasibility of president-elect Yoon Seok-yue being invited to attend next month's NATO summit.
Joining the CCDCOE is about the same as joining NATO?
CCDCOE was founded in May 2008 as a so-called "defense against Russian hackers", which conducts not only cyber offensive and defensive training, but also cyber strategy and policy research. South Korean media said that the organization is considered the strongest force in the field of global cyber security. In 2019, the National State Agency of the Republic of Korea has submitted a letter of intent to join, and from 2020 onwards, it has participated in the world's largest network exercise "Lock Shield" hosted by CCDCOE for two consecutive years. South Korean media also pointed out in the report that with South Korea's accession to CCDCOE, in the future, the State of the Union will participate in NATO's network joint training and participate in related research, so that South Korea will further grasp the right to speak in network attack and defense.
South Korea's MBC television said on Thursday that although South Korea is not joining NATO this time, but the cyber defense center under NATO, its significance is also "not trivial." First, this means that South Korea's cybersecurity capabilities are "certified," and second, the organization has only one non-European member, South Korea. Given the excellent ability of Western countries to deal with cyber crises, strengthening their own cybersecurity through this agency will be the biggest gain for South Korea in the future.
On the other hand, the news of South Korea's accession was released by the National Intelligence Agency, which is in charge of South Korea's cybersecurity. The observation pointed out that with the help of a specific atmosphere, the National Intelligence Agency took the initiative to jump out and say that it joined this agency, which is equivalent to further strengthening the close cooperation between the Intelligence Agencies of South Korea and the United States in disguise, and it is also the close cooperation between the relevant agencies with operational intelligence capabilities, bypassing some political scruples that previously constituted an obstacle, or even taboo.
NATO has actually been laying out cyber operations for many years
NATO has made it clear that the internet has become a new battlefield without smoke. NATO's "collective defense" is considered to be applicable to cyberspace, and other countries should give political, economic and even military support in the face of cyberattacks on NATO members.
In fact, NATO has been laying out cyberspace for many years. As early as 20 years ago, NATO put the establishment of a "cyber defense system" on the agenda. In 2002, NATO adopted the "Cyber Defense Plan" at the Prague Summit, and since 2010, the NATO Cyber Defense Center has held the "Lock Shield" annual cyber warfare exercise. More than ten years later, the "Lock Shield" exercise is now the world's largest and most complex annual combat-type international network offensive and defensive exercise. In 2018, NATO announced the establishment of a cyberspace operations center. At the time, a key NATO official in charge of developing a new strategy said that NATO's recent decision to integrate cyber warfare into its command system may be the biggest policy shift in decades. By 2020, one of NATO's specific measures to strengthen cyber operations is to respond to the so-called Russian threat, NATO plans to integrate Ukraine into the unified cyber operation system and become an "important part of its virtual space combat system.".
Some analysts pointed out that as a neighbor of China, South Korea has officially joined the network organization under NATO this time, which in itself should arouse great attention. This means that if a cyber war against China breaks out in the future, South Korea will be equivalent to "taking sides" with NATO, undoubtedly threatening China's network security.
NATO expansion is worth vigilance!
It is worth mentioning that the agency includes 27 NATO members and 5 non-NATO members, Finland, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and South Korea. Among them, Sweden and Finland recently applied to join NATO, and in fact have long been regarded as entering the gray area between NATO members and NATO allies. Austria and Switzerland are both neutral European countries that are not members of NATO, but recently the Swiss government approved an agreement between Switzerland and NATO, according to which the two sides will exchange secret information. At the NATO foreign ministers' meeting at the beginning of last month, all the above countries were also invited to attend.
Around the Asia-Pacific region, in addition to Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia also attended the nato foreign ministers' meeting not long ago, causing the outside world to be vigilant, questioning not only NATO's crossing the border and being "Asia-Pacific", but also questioning the essence of NATO is the United States's "one word", because at present, the geopolitical layout of the United States in the Indo-Pacific region has become clear, and two mechanisms for China have been constructed: the United States, Japan, Australia, India and New Zealand Quadrilateral Security Mechanism (QUAD) and the Tripartite Security Partnership (AUKUS). And NATO's intention to expand into the Asia-Pacific region is also too obvious.
NATO's eastward expansion has already led to the occurrence of the Crisis in Ukraine, and the arch fire and gambling of the United States and NATO have not only plunged Russia and Ukraine into crisis difficulties, but also made Europe face the risk of a new world war. And what impact will the continuous convergence of South Korea and Japan have on the regional situation? Be wary!
The author 丨 Huang Haining, editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News