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President Lee Jae Myung appears deep in thought during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on Nov. 3. / Yonhap News Agency

President Lee Jae Myung on Nov. 3 ordered a review of plans to establish a "cybersecurity czar" body amid the global spread of cybercrime exploiting security vulnerabilities, including the theft of more than $6.3 billion (approximately 8.4 trillion won) in digital assets from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae that morning, Lee said, "Recently, even the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange suffered astronomical losses from a cyberattack believed to have been carried out by a hacking group. With advances in artificial intelligence, hacking techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated, advanced and commonplace, exposing clear limitations in existing security systems focused on inspections and responses after attacks occur."

"We need to establish a comprehensive prevention system to address cybersecurity threats that have grown to the point of seriously affecting not only people's daily lives but also the national economy and security," Lee emphasized.

"In particular, we also need to discuss establishing a government-wide body covering both the public and private sectors," he said. "I ask you to actively consider establishing a strong and effective 'cybersecurity czar' body capable of overseeing and coordinating security functions that are currently scattered across different organizations."

Lee also called for fundamental reforms to the security system to proactively block evolving hacking threats.

"We must build a system that can detect, share information about and respond to signs of attacks targeting vulnerabilities in advance, and fundamentally overhaul our security systems to proactively block evolving hacking threats," he said.

"We must also thoroughly address security vulnerabilities in major public services and critical national infrastructure, including information and communications, energy and finance," he added.

                                                                                                              Hong Sun-mi