US-South Korea MOU Defines Cybersecurity Cooperation Areas

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service on cybersecurity collaboration areas. 

The MOU, signed on Thursday by CISA Director Jen Easterly and South Korea’s Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service Baek Jong-wook, follows through on the bilateral Cyber Framework that President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol agreed upon in April. The cooperation areas identified in the framework include sharing cyber threat information and best practices in cyber crisis management, CISA said.

Under the MOU, the respective Computer Emergency Response Teams of the United States and South Korea will regularly consult on technical systems and capabilities for cybersecurity threat response. Joint training exercises and expert-level exchanges will also be conducted to share best practices and policy approaches in cybersecurity and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence. 

In June, senior U.S. and South Korean officials assigned the CISA and NIS to co-lead an Action Group on critical infrastructure that will bring in South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and other U.S. government units.  

Cybersecurity collaboration was also among the areas for cooperation in the third annual meeting of the South Korea-U.S. ICT Cooperation Committee held in Hawaii in June. 

Aside from CISA, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security are the other U.S. government agencies cooperating with South Korea on cybersecurity-related concerns.