botnets, hacker attacks and exposure of personal information is the price of having Super Internet

In a dimly lit floor of the tower headquarters in downtown Seoul, Korea National Police, dozens of hard drives and cell phones are sitting in the dissection tray waiting.

flutter among the leaders of cabins, comparing notes, like huge LCD screens air churn out charts and tables for experts to interpret as signs that all is well or warnings .

may not be the chaos of a physical battle, but the Central Agency Cyber ??Terror Response is the first line in the fight increasing crime and South Korean computer connected to the Internet.

Founded over a decade, the center of the response commands now a network of 1,000 employees across the country who control computer systems against viruses, hacker attacks and other and investigate after the systems have been compromised.

In one of the most connected countries in the world, the center is no shortage of work. South Korea, with its access to the Internet almost everywhere at lightning speed and broadband connections, has been classified by the International Telecommunication Union United Nations recently that the most advanced country in the world in terms of information and use of communication technologies. Also known as home to technology giants such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

Unfortunately, the country also shares lower. The data for the safety of the American Society for Internet Research Team Cymru signature indicates that South Korea is by far the main host of the Asia-Pacific peer-to-peer "botnets" - compromised computers connected to Internet use generally for illegal activities, usually unbeknownst to the owner.

Steve Santorelli, director of the World Team Cymru says that these are the disadvantages of being "one of the most wired in the world," explaining that "Peer-to-peer based robots are almost impossible to kill ... (the number in South Korea) is very worrying. "

computer security company Symantec in South Korea ranks seventh worldwide malicious activity online last year, two notches from 2009 and only after much larger than China and India in Asia.

"The problem of cybercrime is growing," sighs Jung Suk-hwa, the Center Cyber ??Terror Response gently supervisor. "Basically, Korea is a good place for that."

a series of attacks by high level this year have highlighted the vulnerabilities of communications infrastructure valuable South Korea and cybercrime push themselves to the public.

In late November of hacking attack that goal deserves Korea, Japan-based online game company Nexon Co exposed the personal information of more than 13 million subscribers to one of its most popular , casts a shadow on his up $ 1.3 billion IPO of Tokyo.

following a data breach to the registration in July Nate and Cyworld, the popular social networking sites operated by SK Communications. The incident involved the accounts of some 35 million users, equivalent to about 70% of the total population.

hackers gained access to the data in April, 23% of the 1.8 million customers in Hyundai Capital, a joint venture between GE Capital and Hyundai Motor.

The case of Nexon and SK Communications are still under discussion with the track in the past have led to China, where most attacks appear to come from Korean companies, according to Jung.

The increase of the leakage of personal data this year has fueled the debate over the actual name of the country, verification rules, which have been controversial since its introduction in 2005 in an attempt to moderate discussions online at election time.