Sue J. Hur(Sue J. Hur)
[Part III] On Cybersecurity Issues In Korea
  ·  2013년 07월 25일

*This is part III to the series on Korea’s cybersecurity issues. We all know that security is a vital investment for survival. In this article, I will cover: Issues involving China; Issues involving North Korea; Their implications; Evolution of cyberattacks, and APT; Korean government’s plans; and Reactions to those plans. For Korea, the biggest concerns are ‘Chinese and North Korean hackers’. Some may remember the attack on the U.S. by Chinese hackers who succeeded…

Today’s Infographic: “Issues Facing The Korean Economy” (Jul. 24)
  ·  2013년 07월 23일

*Click on the image to view full size.  

What’s Up In Korea This Week? [Jul 16.]
  ·  2013년 07월 16일

Cyberattacks in Korea getting worse – a total of 67 targets came under attack A total of 67 targets including public offices and companies came under cyber attacks since June 25, said the Korean government on Thursday. The types of attacks are usually DDoS (distributed denial of service) and malicious codes that destruct hard disk drives. In total (so far!), 14 organizations lost their stored data on hard disks due to the…

On Current Cybersecurity Issues In Korea
  ·  2013년 07월 15일

Cybersecurity is one of the ‘hot issues’ and arguably one of the top priorities for the Korean financial industry. SMEs According to Judd Gregg, the CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the global trend for the past few years was the “increasing number of cyberattacks on smaller financial institutions and businesses [that do not have the defence resources of larger companies]”. Larger Companies Hackers are adapting and are becoming…

Startup Visas To Be Given To Facilitate Foreign Investment And Employment
  ·  2013년 07월 09일

Last Sunday, the South Korean Ministry of Justice announced the revision of the ‘Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Control Act’, which includes granting of startup visas to foreigners for better facilitation of foreign investment activities in Korea. It also aims to encourage international students in Korea to establish startups in the country. (Is Seoul going to be the next Silicon Valley?… Maybe, maybe.) I have looked at the proposed revisions to the…

Korea’s First Computer Museum To Open At The End Of July
  ·  2013년 07월 09일

Korea’s first museum dedicated to computers and gaming is set to open at the end of this month. It is called “Nexon Computer Museum” (NCM) and Nexon’s investment into the museum is estimated at KRW 15 billion (USD $13 million). For 10 years the Nexon chairman has been collecting these valuable items with an ambition and goal to build a computer museum in Korea. The museum is: 2,445 square meters big; and…

Recent Investments In The Korean Mobile Game Industry
  ·  2013년 07월 09일

In this post, I have focused on the recent acquisitions in Korea that highlight both the growing importance of the South Korean mobile gaming market and the concentration of game development talent in the country. I hope that this serves as a useful survey of the mobile gaming landscape in Korea – the country with the one of the most prominent developers in the world and the largest and stable network (=backbone)…

A – Z Guide On The Korean Mobile Game Industry
  ·  2013년 07월 08일

We all know that the growth of mobile means the growth of mobile games. Korea is seeing a transition from online games to mobile games in 2013. In the second half of 2012, mobile games slowly overwhelmed online game. Approximately 61% of Korean smartphone users play games on their phone Smartphone users download an average of 26 apps. rise of KakaoTalk and LINE messenger services. the growth of LTE in Korea Prominent…

What’s Up In Korea? [Jun 3.]
  ·  2013년 07월 03일

World’s fastest mobile network launched by South Korean telco, SKT SK Telecom, Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, launched world’s first LTE-Advanced network called LTE-A, with speeds twice as fast as the current existing service. LTE-A is also 10 times faster than the 3G network. This service will be available in Seoul and 42 other major cities and provinces in Korea, as well as in 103 universities. How is this in line with global…

Analysis Of The LTE Revolution In Korea
  ·  2013년 06월 26일

Around 10 years ago, ITU said that “There are few recommendations that one can offer a country as advanced in ICT as Korea. Broadband penetration is the world’s highest.” –  and that still holds true today in 2013. 1. The Korean Telecom Market  South Korea has a driven telecom market dynamics. It has one of the fastest growth in smartphone numbers with around a 23 million increase in the span of 2…

What’s Up In Korea This Week? [20. Jun]
  ·  2013년 06월 20일

Samsung Galaxy S4 Understands Korean Dialects?!  Samsung Galaxy S4 ‘s ‘S Voice Engine’, ‘S Translator’ and ‘S Voice Drive’ now allows for a more correct translation of Korean dialects. The South Korean conglomerate have been collecting data about different dialects around Korea (and mind you, they are remarkably different from standard Korean). Samsung Electronics have been continuously making developments in the voice technology area. S4 had a ‘non-touch’ concept that allows you…

Zuckerberg In Korea: Face-to-face Meetings With Samsung And President Park
  ·  2013년 06월 19일

Zuckerberg (center) walks into Samsung Electronics’ building to meet with executives of the Korean tech giant. Samsung We wrote earlier that the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg will be in Korea (read the article here). The meeting with the Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, Lee Jae-yong was one of the key points in Zuckerberg’s short itinerary in Korea. It was speculated that he will be visiting President Park Geun-Hye – but he had also…

The Rise Of Collaborative Consumptions And Korea
  ·  2013년 06월 17일

Business is a zero-sum game. Collaboration is a plus-sum game. Everyone seems to be talking about “The Sharing Economy” – everybody literally gets a share of your meal, and vice versa. Take the Korean startup, Zipbob. So: Forget zero-sum games; people are all about “collaborative consumption” now. And the people in Asia, especially Korea, are rising up. Wait. Collaborative consumption? Short answer: commercial arrangements and transactions in which participants share and access…

Kakao, Government, Startups: What Will 2013 Have In Store For Korea?
  ·  2013년 06월 13일

We wrote previously about the current situation in the South Korean startup ecosystem. We said that the global startup capital is declining whereas the Korean venture world is seeing more fundings, more startups, and more enthusiasm. The rise of startups in Korea really started with KakaoTalk i n 2010, and since then we have seen $191 million US dollars raised in Korea (in 2013, up from $189 mil in 2012), and increase…

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg To Visit Korea At The End Of June. What Are Its Implications?
  ·  2013년 06월 12일

Facebook’s Co-Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg will visit Korea at the end of this month, according to Yonhap News. Seeing that Bill Gates and Larry Page visited Korea recently, it seems likely that Zuckerberg, too, will discuss the future of IT with the Park administration. People are speculating that he will visit Cheongwadae (the presidential residence in Korea, or the ‘blue house’) at the end of June. He will be spending about…

What’s Up In Korea This Week? [12. Jun]
  ·  2013년 06월 12일

  KT Will Spend $2.65B Upgrading Network And Create Jobs Remember how KT said they set up a fund of USD 132 million by 2017 to help smaller and mid-sized firms in Korea earlier on this year? Well, according to Yonhap News yesterday, they will spend KRW 3 trillion (approximately USD 2.65 billion). KT is more ambitious than we thought. That means that the south Korean telco is spending approximately half of the USD 5.3 billion…

PRISM: Why Global Citizens Are Concerned
  ·  2013년 06월 10일

We thought it’s about time we wrote about the U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM program, the latest phenomenon around the world today – and yet, it’s old news, because information is and has always been the ultimate power. This issue is quite divisive – some people care, some people don’t, some people think you ought to care. What do you think about the PRISM issue? What is PRISM? PRISM is an electronic…

Korea And The Internet Of Things
  ·  2013년 06월 10일

Good thing the Koreans went for the fiber early. South Korea dominates the top lists when it comes to broadband, according to latest edition of Akamai’s State of the Internet report for the three months ending December 31, 2012. The quarterly State of the Internet report puts the South Korean city of Daegu at the top of the 100 fastest cities. Here are some highlights from Akamai’s official press release: Global On…

Interview With Seojoon Kim, Vice President Of KnowRe
  ·  2013년 06월 05일

Earlier today we talked about the rise of Korean startups… and what’s a better example than KnowRe? KnowRe is the recent Winner of Gap App Challenge (1st Place) 2013, Grand Prize Winner at Global K-Startup 2012, and Winner of Plug and Play Tech Center at beLAUNCH 2012? In much excitement, we interviewed the Co-Founder and Vice-President of KnowRe, Seojoon (Simon) Kim who was incredibly humble about this accomplishment. You can read our…