Founded in 2000 as the world’s first graduate school dedicated to Information Security, School of Cybersecurity (SCS) at Korea University is a leading institution in research and education in cybersecurity.
Our research spans a wide range of cybersecurity theories and technologies, including cryptography and protocol; computer and network security; digital forensics; embedded and emerging security; and information assurance and risk management.
We also commit to understanding the ways in which these theories and practice contribute to our society through our research in policy.
SCS is unique in that it has a very large faculty, including 17 full-time professors devoted exclusively to the discipline of cybersecurity.
SCS boasts a publishing record that is outstanding among universities within South Korea and without, having published over 500 papers on SCI(E) journals over the last 15 years. SCS has a special role at its home base because South Korea is notably vulnerable to cyber threats.
Establishing cybersecurity is of utmost priority for the country for two reasons, the first being that South Korea is one of the most well-connected countries in the world, with the highest percentage of internet users and most advanced IT infrastructures.
The resulting dependence on cyberspace, however, lets its population be highly susceptible to damages incurred by cyber-attacks. Secondly, cyber terrorism is a viable means of attack for North Korea, the counterpart with which South Korea is in a state of armistice.
That South Korea is equipped with advanced cybersecurity technologies, infrastructures and strategies, is thus critical for its national security.
It is against this backdrop that SCS develops security technologies and fosters cyber security professionals.
As of 2015, SCS has cultivated over 1,000 security experts that have landed at various positions in both public and private sectors, each and every one serving as a building block of South Korean cybersecurity industry. SCS also offers graduate courses specifically designed to train bankers, corporate business employees, and civil servants from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Ministry of National Defense, and National Police Agency.
Finally, SCS established an undergraduate department of Cyber Defense in 2011. The department’s mandate is to nurture cybersecurity experts that will serve as military officers at the ROK Army after graduation. The undergraduate students educated by SCS’ faculty are highly skilled in practice, as demonstrated by eight of them, joined by five members from external institutions, winning DEF CON, one of the largest hacking competitions in the world.
Today, cyberspace is an integral domain of our activities. It is the platform that maintains the networks and systems underpinning the market, the government, and the public sphere, and without it our systems are bound to falter.
At SCS, we hope to take advantage of the unique environment in which we live, that is, to analyze cyber threat cases in the region to gain a thorough understanding of their developments.
With that, we hope to share our learnings with our students, the academia, and governments, to ultimately promote a safe and secure global cyberspace.
President of School of Cybersecurity
Professor Hun Yeong Kwon