Expanding formal education in information security… 'Nurturing talent responsible for cyberspace safety'

2024.07.15. The Fair Economy — The Ministry of Science and ICT, the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP) and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) announced on the 15th that they have newly selected two universities each for Convergence Security Graduate Schools and Cybersecurity Specialized Universities to expand formal education in the field of information security, in line with the 'Plan to Cultivate 100,000 Cyber Talents,' and will actively support them.

The 'Convergence Security Core Talent Cultivation Project,' which supports Convergence Security Graduate Schools, aims to cultivate master's and doctoral talents in convergence security to meet the growing demand for high-level information security personnel as security threats spread to various information and communication technology (ICT) convergence industries due to digital transformation. The project plans to provide a total of 5.5 billion won (about $3.9 million) over up to six years (four plus two years) to the selected universities.

This year, applications were accepted for one university in specialized fields such as autonomous driving, industrial control system security, and space, aviation, and drones, and one university in general fields excluding specialized areas. Out of a total of 10 universities that applied—four in specialized fields and six in general fields—Soongsil University and Hanyang University ERICA were finally selected.

The two selected universities plan to operate Convergence Security Graduate Schools starting from the first semester of 2025. They are planning differentiated education to cultivate practical, high-level convergence security talent tailored to industrial needs, including training at least 20 master's and doctoral students in convergence security each year, developing and operating specialized research and curricula, and discovering industry-academia collaboration projects.

The 'Information Security Specialized University Project' supports information security-related departments at four-year universities in Korea to cultivate job-oriented information security professionals. Selected universities will receive up to 2.7 billion won (about $2 million) over a maximum of six years (4+2 years).

This year, a total of six universities applied, including one for incident response roles, three for security software development roles, and two for security management roles. Among them, Kangwon National University and KAIST were ultimately selected.

The two selected universities plan to open specialized undergraduate programs in information security starting from the first semester of 2025, after going through preparation processes such as designing educational programs, building infrastructure and recruiting students. They aim to cultivate at least 30 outstanding undergraduate-level talents per year for each security job role through industry-academia projects in cooperation with security companies.

Jung Chang-rim, the Information Security Network Policy Officer at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "As digital transformation accelerates recently, cyber threats threatening our daily lives and national economy are intensifying. To respond to the increasingly intelligent and sophisticated cyber threats, we will continue to expand formal information security education and carry out the 'Plan to Foster 100,000 Cybersecurity Talent' without a hitch."