In a darkened "war room" dozens of South Korea's brightest college students are practicing hacking each other as part of a government program to train them to battle some of the world's best — the shadowy techno-soldiers of Kim Jong Un's regime.
To build its defenses, President Park Geun-hye's government has enlisted 120 of the country's most-talented young programmers, offering full scholarships in return for seven years of military service. While the hackers of the Kim regime may be best known for their link to last year's attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., their primary target remains South Korea, with the two countries technically still at war more than 60 years after the conflict that sealed their division.
The urgency to train "white," or ethical, hackers is rising as industrialized nations try to safeguard digital information vital to national security and infrastructure, while combating cybercrime that is estimated to cost over $400 billion a year globally. South Korea's experience fending off the North has made the country a global player in cyberdefense. Mitigating future damage still remains a challenge for Seoul's military hackers as the North's attacks become more sophisticated.