Plan on info security tech unveiled

The Ministry of Information and Communications unveiled a five-year plan Tuesday to invest 277.7 billion won by 2005 in the development of the nation`s information security technology industry. The plan is aimed at elevating Korea to a place among the world`s top five powers in the sector.

Under the plan, 80.8 billion won will be spent on developing the basic technology used for information security products, such as high density, high-speed ciphers, public key infrastructure and biometrics. A total of 124.4 billion won will be spent on the technology to protect networks and systems and the remaining 72.5 billion won will go toward developing the technology to better safeguard e-commerce transactions. The technologies developed will be supplied to domestic industries, officials said.

The ministry plans to get the project underway next month by concluding contracts with research and development institutes. It plans to collect opinions from experts in the domestic and foreign information technology sectors before drawing up specific plans for 2002 and thereafter. The government said Korea ranked eighth in the number of patents for information security technology registered between 1996 and April of last year. The figure increased 62 percent in 1999 from the previous year, making Korea the fastest growing country in this area, officials said.

[Yonhap]