- Moved up 11 places, from 15th in 2019
- Results of National Cybersecurity Strategy (2019), Digital New Deal (2020), and K-Cybersecurity Strategy (2021)
- MSIT to expand support for information security, including private sector's capacity building and R&D investment
The Ministry of Science and ICT (“MSIT”; Minister Lim Hyesook) announced that Korea came in fourth out of 194 countries in the fourth edition of the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) published at 1:30 pm. (KST 8:30 p.m.) on June 29 in Geneva, Switzerland.
* Top 10 countries: USA (1st), UK, Saudi Arabia (2nd), Estonia (3rd), Korea, Singapore, Spain (4th), Russia, UAE, Malaysia (5th), Lithuania (6th), Japan (7th), France (9th), India (10th)
The GCI is a biennial project of the ITU to compare and analyze cybersecurity capabilities and levels of countries.
In the K-Cybersecurity Promotion Strategy, which is part of the Digital New Deal, the government revealed its goal of becoming one of the top five nations by 2025.
The index consists of the five assessment pillars: legal, technical, organization, capacity development and cooperation. The evaluation is based on each country’s replies to 73 questions and evidential data.
This year, Korea achieved perfect scores in legal, capacity development and cooperation and did well in technical and organization.
In the third GCI published in 2019, Korea ranked 15 with a score of 87.3. This year, Korea scored 98.52, up by 11.22 from last GCI score, and ranked fourth.
* Korea ranked 13 (Score: 78.2) in 2017 and 15 (Score 87.3) in 2019.
Score Comparison Between the 3rd and 4th GCI |
Pillar |
3rd |
4th |
Score difference |
| Legal : Measuring the laws and regulations on cybercrime and cybersecurity |
18.2 |
20 |
1.8 |
| Technical : Measuring the implementation of technical capabilities through national and sector-specific agencies |
18.7 |
19.54 |
0.84 |
| Organizational : Measuring the national strategies and organizations implementing cybersecurity |
16.5 |
18.98 |
2.48 |
| Capacity Development : Measuring awareness campaigns, training, education and incentives for cybersecurity capacity development |
19.7 |
20 |
0.3 |
| Cooperation : Measuring partnerships between agencies, firms and countries |
14.2 |
20 |
5.8 |
Total Score |
87.3 |
98.52 |
11.22 |
The government established the National Cybersecurity Strategy in 2019 for the first time in the country’s history and has been making steady efforts to improve national cybersecurity system by enhancing security of major national infrastructure and securing cyber deterrence capacity.
Last year, the government expanded investments* in information security technology development through the Second Plan for the Promotion of Information Security Industry. The government has been paving the ground for information security industry by expanding support for nurturing of information security talent (30,000 people, by 2025) to create jobs.
* Information security R&D budget: KRW 62.071 billion in 2020 → KRW 74.735 billion in 2021 (20.4% increase)
In February, the government published the K-Cybersecurity Promotion Strategy, which is aimed at becoming a digitally secure nation, and revealed its plan to invest KRW 670 billion in information security by 2023.
Minister Lim Hyesook said, "Although Korea ranked fourth in the GCI, we cannot let down our guard against cyber attacks as cybersecurity is a constant race between attack and defence."
She added, "Even one cyber attack can cause great damage to people's lives, so the government will continue to expand investments in information security and make efforts to create a secure digital environment."
For further information, please contact Deputy Director Park Tae-seong of the Ministry of Science and ICT (E-mail address : sealiker15@korea.kr).