Korea named inaugural chair of ISO drone cybersecurity working group

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has formally launched a dedicated working group to draft global cybersecurity rules for drones, tapping a Korean cybersecurity scholar to lead the effort.

This initiative comes as security vulnerabilities of airborne tech have moved to the center of international concerns, with uncrewed aircraft systems shifting from novelty gadgets to critical infrastructure — delivering packages, conducting industrial inspections and assisting in national defense.

At the 21st plenary meeting of the ISO’s uncrewed aircraft systems subcommittee (ISO/TC20/SC16) in Brussels last week, member nations approved the creation of Working Group 10 (WG10), focused exclusively on drone cybersecurity.

Lee Jong-hyuk, a professor of information security at Sejong University, was appointed as its inaugural convenor.

The appointment marks a key victory for Korea, which has actively lobbied for standardized cybersecurity protocols since 2025.

With the formal establishment of WG10, ISO officially initiated work on its first baseline security document, designate ...