Argentine cybersecurity chief anticipates cooperation with South Korea amid complex, delocalized threats

Hector Casas, director of the agency, made the remarks Friday ahead of his visit to Seoul for Cyber Summit Korea (CSK) 2026 next week. Casas is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the summit, which runs Wednesday to Friday in southern Seoul and is hosted by South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the National Security Research Institute.

Casas said cooperation between Argentina and South Korea could extend into cybersecurity, following recent bilateral discussions on critical minerals and supply chains. In late July, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung described South America as Seoul's key supply chain partner in the AI era during a three-nation tour to the region. The two countries agreed on the sidelines of a bilateral summit to strengthen cooperation in critical minerals, including joint projects across the entire lithium value chain.

Casas said his agency hopes to work with Seoul in 'detection, prospection and malware analysis of bad players.' He said cyberthreats are worldwide and do not distinguish where 'bad guys' groups are located or what nationality they are. Latin America is 'not 100 percent safe' from digital threats originating from North Korea, he added. 'It is essential to establish mechanisms for detecting and blocking intrusions through cooperation and joint efforts with other countries,' Casas said.

The Argentine cybersecurity chief also outlined his country's strategic plan to address challenges posed by growing AI-related infrastructure. Late last year, the Argentine government separated its cybersecurity and cyberintelligence functions and created an independent agency to handle digital threats, the National Cybersecurity Center (CNC). Since its launch in May, the CNC has overseen AR-CERT, the country's main technical management entity for computer security incidents. It has also issued a mandate requiring all public institutions and critical national infrastructure to overhaul their systems in line with a new security framework, according to Casas.

'We believe that cybersecurity and cyberintelligence are two different branches ... they need to address different focuses and premises,' he said. He added that the distinction is important today because Argentina faces repeated hacking attempts targeting state-owned databases and sophisticated phishing scams that exploit generative AI.

Casas is set to give a keynote speech at the CSK 2026, hosted by South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the National Security Research Institute, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Editor's Summary

Argentina's cybersecurity agency chief Hector Casas said Argentina anticipates cooperation with South Korea on detecting and analyzing malware as AI-driven threats become more complex and delocalized. He pointed to Argentina's recent restructuring of cybersecurity and cyberintelligence functions and new security requirements for public institutions and critical infrastructure. Casas is scheduled to give a keynote at Cyber Summit Korea 2026 in Seoul.