SEOUL — South Korea’s military is looking to launch a cyber warfare command designed to fend off computer attacks from North Korea and other countries, officials said. The plan will be included in a military reform package to be presented to President Lee Myung-Bak, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

South Korea’s military computer networks are under ever-growing cyber attack.

The South’s military security unit said in a report last month that every day the military counters an average of 10,450 hacking attempts and 81,700 computer virus infections.

Experts say South Korea — one of the world’s most wired societies — needs an integrated unit to fight cyber attacks by North Korea and China, which run elite hacker units. In 2004 hackers based in China used information-stealing viruses to break into the computer systems of Seoul government agencies.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo (Reuters)

Last year South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo warned his cabinet against what he said were attempts by Chinese and North Korean computer hackers to obtain state secrets. (AFP)

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