Surshark: Korea Retains No. 1 Spot in Asia for Digital Quality of Life, But AI and Digital Security Rankings Fall
TECHWORLD ·
✦ AI Summary
In Surfshark's 8th Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL), South Korea ranked 11th out of 121 countries, up from 12th the previous year, and maintained its No. 1 position in Asia.
South Korea ranked 5th in AI, 12th in internet quality, and 10th in digital infrastructure, but came in 22nd in digital security, 32nd in the cybersecurity indicator, and 29th in internet affordability.
Domestic reports of cyber intrusion incidents in the first half of this year totaled 1,236, up 19.5% from the same period last year, and Surfshark said layered security is needed in the AI era.
Surfshark released the 8th Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL). South Korea ranked 11th out of 121 countries worldwide in the overall DQL, up from 12th a year earlier, and remained No. 1 in Asia.
However, South Korea's AI ranking and digital security ranking both fell over the past year. Of the five categories, South Korea's highest ranking was in AI, where it placed 5th, but that was down two spots from 3rd last year. The AI category was above 96% of the countries analyzed, and South Korea ranked higher than Japan at 7th and China at 14th. Internet quality rose from 35th last year to 12th this year.
By contrast, digital infrastructure fell from 2nd to 10th, and internet affordability was 29th. Digital security dropped from 18th to 22nd, while the cybersecurity indicator fell seven places to 32nd.
According to data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), domestic reports of cyber intrusion incidents in the first half of this year totaled 1,236, up 19.5% from the same period last year.
Along with this situation, South Korea is pushing ahead with its goal of becoming one of the world's top three AI powers. As part of that effort, it is introducing a free nationwide AI service called "Mudeureo-ui AI," and the service is scheduled to begin beta testing this month.
Thomas Stamulis, Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Surfshark, said the current era is one of AI-driven cyberattacks. He said AI has effectively removed hackers' manpower constraints, noting that in the past, preparing a one-person targeted attack required weeks of work, including information gathering, target selection, content localization, and fake website creation, but that AI now enables large-scale automation of social engineering tactics. He also said the speed of automation is about 100 times faster than before, and that whereas a few years ago there might have been one manually conducted scam, today there are 1,000 highly sophisticated automated attacks that are difficult to identify.
The speaker said that one online security tool is not enough to respond to AI-based threat environments. He explained that all citizens and organizations need layered security, and proposed real-time scam detection, privacy tools, and autonomous endpoint security as components. He also emphasized that machines must be met with machines.
The speaker said AI adoption must be linked to national digital infrastructure capabilities. He also said that AI systems should be made easier not only for experts but also for ordinary citizens to use, which could allow the technological environment to evolve at an unprecedented pace. He added that introducing automation solutions across public services and digital systems is premised on preparing for internal and external cyber threats and abuse, and cannot be achieved without making robust defense systems a priority.
In the global overall ranking released alongside the report, Finland took first place. Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, and Austria followed. The entire top 10 consisted of European countries.
In the digital security category, all of the top 10 countries were European, but the composition of the leading group in AI was different. In AI, the United States ranked first, followed by the United Kingdom and France. Among the top 10 in AI, only four European countries made the list: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
The United States and the United Kingdom, both strong in AI competitiveness, also ranked relatively low in security-related categories. The United States scored 38th in the cybersecurity indicator, and the United Kingdom ranked 28th in digital security. Surfshark said that users' online security is lagging behind the pace of AI adoption, resulting in an increase in fraud losses.
Source: TECHWORLD · Lee Gwang-jae
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=408143
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Source: TECHWORLD
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