Can Cisco help Korea deal with cyber threats?

By Yoon Sung-won

Cisco is trying to expand its footing in Korea at a time when the country faces increasing cyber threats amid volatile relations with China and North Korea. But the U.S. IT giant is coming under fire because it lacks resources to deal with specific Korean issues.

“It is clear that Korea is exposed to considerable cyber threats,” Cisco Security Business Group CTO Bret Hartman said during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday.

Hartman also said Korea has many neighboring countries that may pose threats in terms of cyber security.

“Korea has a special position in cybersecurity,” he said. “Cyber threats that are alleged to be backed by a state are also becoming more extensive. Political cyber attacks collect information for a long time for the future instead of inflicting immediate damages.”

Claiming that Korea lacks systems and human resources specialized in complex modern cyber threats, Hartman said that the company can help the country to deal with the situation ― the firm has an integrated threat intelligence team named “Talos.”

For an integrated cyber threat defense, Cisco operates the Talos team consisting of some 250 cyber security experts. The team handles about 20 billion cyber attacks a day, the company said.

But Hartman admitted that the team also lacks experts to handle specific Korean issues and unique geopolitical conditions in terms of cyber security, yet.

“The Talos team is looking into cyber threats targeting specific countries among many other nations around the world. We currently do not have a Talos team resource assigned for Korea,” he said. He said the company is considering the possibility of assigning part of the team for Korea or hiring a native speaker in Korean for the team in the future.

Hartman said it has met with a security-related official from the Korean government to talk about sharing intelligence on cyber security.

“The key is that many countries should share intelligence on cyber threats,” he said. “It is not limited to Korea. The whole world should cooperate for this.”

According to Cisco’s 2017 annual report on cyber security, 29 percent of enterprises that received cyber attacks suffered from sales losses. The number of enterprises attacked by cyber threats will increase as the network technologies will connect about 50 billion devices by 2020, according to the report.

Hartman said enterprises should boost simplicity, compatibility and automation for cyber security systems to increase efficiency.

Cisco has focused on selling enterprise network equipment. But the company has increasingly expanded its cyber security business. It has acquired nine security-related enterprises in the last 12 months. The company said it posted $1.96 billion in sales from its security business in its last fiscal year, up 13 percent from the previous year.