PAJU — The Gyeonggi Province Economy and Science Promotion Agency (GBSA) has launched an industry-academia program that puts college students into real corporate security assessments.
The agency said it signed a memorandum of understanding on the 25th at its Gwanggyo office with Ajou University, Hanyang University ERICA and Daejin University to run a project supporting college student information-security consulting using attack surface management (ASM).
At the core of the project, students take part in actual corporate information-security consulting using ASM technology, which identifies and manages a company's internet-exposed IT assets and vulnerabilities. It was designed to counter cybersecurity threats that grow alongside companies' digital assets as the use of generative artificial intelligence and cloud services expands.
The project focuses in particular on proactively identifying weak points that companies have failed to detect, such as shadow IT — IT assets outside an organization's approval or management scope — and externally exposed servers and services.
The project is overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), with the agency's Gyeonggi Information Security Support Center serving as the regional implementing body for Gyeonggi Province.
Under the agreement, the Gyeonggi Information Security Support Center will handle project planning and training program operations, along with budget and infrastructure support. The three universities will recruit participating students and provide on-campus study space and training equipment. The institutions agreed to maintain a cooperative framework linking education with corporate consulting so that students can apply the information-security knowledge they learn at school to actual company sites.
Joint practical training was also held for pre-selected students in information-security and computer-engineering-related departments and members of security clubs. The training consisted of field-oriented programs covering the latest information-security trends, the concept and application of ASM, and hands-on corporate information-security consulting.
Students who complete the training will form teams with information-security experts and take part in security consulting for companies in the province through early November. The targets are companies that applied for the free vulnerability inspection support program for preventing security breaches, overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT and KISA, and that wish to take part in the student-linked consulting.
Under the guidance of on-site experts, the students will diagnose companies' externally exposed digital assets and security vulnerabilities and propose improvement measures for each company. The agency said it expects the program to raise students' field capabilities while allowing participating companies to check for potential security threats in advance.
The agency plans to develop the project into an industry-academia model for training information-security talent and to strengthen its links with information-security support programs that help small and medium-sized enterprises in the province respond to cyber threats.
"This project is a process in which college students learn the latest security technology, inspect the security vulnerabilities of actual companies and build their practical skills," said Hyun Chang-ha, standing director of the agency's Future New Industries Division. "We will work with universities and companies to train information-security talent and actively support efforts to strengthen the security capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises in the province."
