사이버안보 업무에 관한 헌법학적 연구* - 국가정보기관 직무로서의 문제를 중심으로 -

Cybersecurity is emerging as a core element of national security in the modern digital age, and cyberattacks—as exemplified by the recent Coupang data breach—are continuously increasing. While the National Intelligence Service has performed cybersecurity duties for a long time, the legal basis for these activities was established relatively recently. Following the amendment of the National Intelligence Service Act in 2020, cybersecurity services were specified as National Intelligence Service’s duties and simultaneously the competence for criminal investigation was repealed. This study aimed to examine the issues arising from these legislative and policy changes from a constitutional perspective. First, achievement of the legislator’s original intent of transforming Korea’s National Intelligence Service into a pure intelligence agency has failed. Rather, it has increased the potential for fundamental rights violation. Second, the relevant current statutes are replete with indeterminate concepts, thereby violating the Principle of Clarity and failing to ensure legal stability. Third, the ‘Regulations on Cybersecurity Services’ create powers capable of restricting fundamental rights without any statutory delegation, thus containing elements that violate the Principle of Legal Reserve and the Supremacy of Law. Considering the structural characteristics of cybersecurity and the potential for fundamental rights violation associated with such services it is necessary to establish appropriate checks and balances for the authority of inquiry, which is substantively indistinguishable from criminal investigation. The legislator must also clearly improve the wording of the National Intelligence Service Act. It is imperative that the National Assembly expedite legislative deliberation to ensure that these duties are performed based on a clear statutory mandate.