The government is moving to support national and public institutions in adopting a new network security framework.
The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), together with the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), announced it has selected six consortiums composed of national and public institutions and security companies, and will pursue the "2026 National Network Security Framework (N2SF) Adoption Support Project."
N2SF is a system that classifies the work-related information of national and public institutions into three grades—classified, sensitive, and open—according to importance, and applies differentiated security levels by grade. Until now, national and public institutions have operated work networks handling sensitive data separately from internet networks, in accordance with the National Intelligence Service's network separation policy. However, with the spread of new technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, the need has grown for a new security framework that can improve work efficiency while maintaining a high level of security.
In response, the National Intelligence Service established N2SF last year, applying differentiated security levels according to information importance. This year, it revised the National Cybersecurity Basic Guidelines to formally adopt N2SF.
To support N2SF adoption and to deepen domestic security companies' understanding of the related new security technologies, KISA conducted a public call worth a total of 4.5 billion won in March this year, targeting national and public institutions and domestic security companies. This project is the follow-up stage to last year's demonstration project, which verified the feasibility of applying N2SF in the field. It aims to support demand institutions in introducing and applying the N2SF information service models they require in their actual work environments.
Following document and presentation evaluations, KISA on the 1st of this month made its final selection of six alliances. These comprise demand institutions—including the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and KEPCO KDN, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Korea Post, the Korea Expressway Corporation, the Korea Real Estate Board, and the National Research Foundation of Korea—and the security companies that will support each institution's adoption of the N2SF information service models. The security companies selected as suppliers will support the demand institutions' N2SF adoption for about seven months through December 2026.
