LG Uplus enhances network security for general election

LG Uplus employees monitor broadcasting networks at the company’s security control center to prevent possible errors and cyber terrorism as they did during the general election, Wednesday. / Courtesy of LG Uplus

By Yoon Sung-won

LG Uplus, the nation’s third-largest telecom company, said Wednesday that it activated its emergency network operations system for the general election.

The company said it has established an improved network back-up system and increased the number of emergency response personnel to support stable ballot-counting broadcasting for the 20th general election and to prevent possible cyber terrorism attacks on networks.

“We have completed all the preparations to deal with assaults on our networks and unexpected errors through preliminary simulation training,” LG Uplus’s backbone network operations division executive chief Park Seung-un said in a statement. “We will do our utmost to provide our clients with stable network services during the general election.”

Based on its previous experiences of running emergency network operations during the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, the London Olympics in 2012 and the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, LG Uplus said it has established around-the-clock broadcasting network monitoring and field support systems nationwide.

In particular, it said it performed a quality check on its broadcasting network since March and established a dual broadcasting back-up system to provide general election broadcasting programs even under natural disasters.

LG Uplus also said it has built a hotline connecting the National Election Commission to its central security control center to cooperate in dealing with cyber terrorism.

The company said it has enhanced its network security systems against cyber terrorism such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks ― a real-time response system that instantly blocks DDoS attacks on its backbone networks when security control systems detect a possible attack.