6 National Cybersecurity Strategy 01 Changing Environment and New Challenges Increased vulnerability in cyberspace The Republic of Korea has built one of the most convenient and prosperous cyberspace environments, drawing upon our worldclass information and communications technology(ICT) and related infrastructure. Today cyberspace is crucial to the daily lives of people, as well as to the economic activities of businesses and the operations of the government, including the provision of basic services. However, interconnection across various information and communications devices is sharply increasing the complexity of cyberspace, making it harder to manage in a safe manner. The borderless nature of cyberspace enables vulnerabilities of certain ICT devices to threaten cyberspace as a whole. Furthermore, cyberspace threats are starting to affect our physical environment with the increasing use of convergent technologies, enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) for home appliances, medical devices, smart factories and critical infrastructure. The severity of cyber threats In the past, malicious cyber activities were carried out mainly by individuals or hacker groups. With the growing involvement of criminal and terrorist groups, supported by state actors, cyber attacks are becoming more organized and executed on a larger scale. The methods of cyber attacks are diversifying as well, from theft of confidential information and money, to causing social unrest for political purposes, and even cyber terrorism to disrupt or destroy infrastructure. There is also an increasing likelihood of a cyber war, where cyber attacks may incur damage equal to that caused by traditional armed attacks.