en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Korea National Security Technology Institute, in collaboration with 10 agencies including the National Police Agency, the National Intelligence Service, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, has released the first-ever "2026 National Digital Forensics White Paper," listing the misuse of artificial intelligence for deepfakes as one of the top ten annual crime issues.
This marks the first time South Korea has compiled a white paper on digital forensics at the national level. The white paper organizes and analyzes 10 crime issues that drew attention in the digital forensics field last year, including deepfake video manipulation, AI voice synthesis voice phishing, automated phishing, and financial fraud. Using cases where middle and high school students' social network photos and graduation album photos were misused, the report illustrates how students' faces from the same school are synthesized into obscene images and distributed via channels such as Telegram, arguing that deepfake technology directly threatens public life and social safety. In terms of legal systems and procedures, the white paper notes that the objectivity and impartiality of digital evidence are subject to stricter scrutiny. Recently, courts have required procedural controls during the search and seizure of electronic information, such as ensuring the right of defense counsel to participate, limiting investigations unrelated to the charges, and deleting or destroying irrelevant data.
Selected issues also include: legislative discussions on cloud forensics and remote server search and seizure, amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code in the age of AI and the development of AI usage guidelines, large-scale personal information leakage incidents, the expanding core role of digital forensics experts in the cybersecurity field, controversies over encryption/decryption and mobile forensics reliability, cross-chain tracking technology for virtual assets, the expansion of KOLAS (Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme) for digital forensics to the private sector and participation in overseas investigation agency proficiency tests, and the hosting of K-Digital Forensics Week 2025.
Through surveys and expert interviews, the white paper points out that support and investment in digital forensics on-site remain insufficient. Particularly for smaller agencies, the licensing fees for foreign forensic tools and annual update deployment costs pose a significant burden. A representative from one investigative agency responded that introducing new tools increases the budget by over 10%, already creating internal pressure within the department. This highlights the need to strengthen domestic digital forensics tool development capabilities and provide standard tools that public investigative agencies can use stably.
Education and training needs were also frequently mentioned. Respondents noted that due to the high cost of tool usage training courses, it is necessary for the state or public institutions to systematically provide training for investigators. The white paper evaluates that national-level tools being developed by the Korea National Security Technology Institute, such as DFT (Digital Forensics Tool), help save budgets, narrow the gap in analytical capabilities between agencies, and establish a standardized investigation foundation.
The white paper recommends that in the future, standardized curricula should be developed through collaboration among academia, research institutions, and investigative agencies, and that the training of new talent should be linked with the retraining of current personnel to strengthen the foundation of digital forensics professionals and enhance the practical capabilities of on-site investigators.
Currently, the field of digital forensics is not independently and systematically included in South Korea's national science and technology standard classification system or the ICT R&D technology classification system, making it difficult to comprehensively grasp the overall status of the industry and technology in R&D planning, technology statistical management, industrial cultivation, and talent development policy formulation. The Korea National Security Technology Institute expects that this white paper will serve as an opportunity to promote the inclusion of digital forensics in the national science and technology and ICT R&D standard classification systems, facilitating the systematic advancement of related policies.
On the same day, agencies including the National Police Agency, the National Intelligence Service, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, together with the Korea National Security Technology Institute, held the "2026 First Half National Digital Forensics R&D Council Meeting" at the EL Tower Daisy Hall to commemorate the first release of the white paper. Hwang Soo-hoon, President of the Korea National Security Technology Institute, stated that digital forensics is a core field supporting national security, industrial competitiveness, and digital sovereignty, and its importance will continue to grow. Under future technological environments such as AI and quantum technology, digital forensics will face new challenges, and the institute will continue to drive technological innovation and cooperative systems to address these challenges.
