National security and smartphones

A Korean soldier belonging to the artillery division on the front lines of Gangwon Province was given his first leave. The first thing he did after arriving home was to look for his mobile phone. When his parents visited him at his camp, he had asked them to bring the phone with the battery fully charged.

He took his phone to the replacement training center but it was sent back home.

On his first leave, he read a Dong-A Ilbo article on military security information being leaked from the smartphones of soldiers. The story said soldiers were posting training photos and weapons on social networking sites. One posted a picture of armored cars on his Facebook account with the message, "I`ll be on a two-week tactical training session." Other soldiers secretly bring their smartphones to camp, and one who was discharged from the service said a third of soldiers have smartphones in the barracks.

The term "telecommunication security" is the very beginning of communications in the military. Soldiers answer phones by saying, "Telecommunication security. This is Hong Gil-dong." This is because security information is vulnerable to leaks via telecommunication. The Internet is open to everyone and even people in North Korea can access it. The North is seeking an information war by fostering 3,000 computer experts as "cyber warriors." Under these circumstances, leaking military information via smartphones will allow a North Korean invasion of South Korea. Aware of the gravity of the situation, the South Korean Defense Ministry issued in January guidelines on the use of social networking sites for soldiers. As accidents prevailed, however, it decided to set up a cyber military discipline plan.

The camp that the soldier belong to appeared to have tightened discipline on telecommunication security. He said a soldier now cannot even think of bringing in his or her smartphone. The soldier`s view on having a smarphone is considered unique. "The real problem with smartphones has to do with games. Security information leaks can be prevented though repeated education. But soldiers have to stand guard for as long as six hours, and if they have a game device (smartphone), would they just stand and guard? If soldiers have mobile phones, North Korean soldiers can easily cross the iron fence."

Editorial Writer Heo Seung-ho (tigera@donga.com)