South Korea's military has upgraded its cyber defense readiness amid the global spread of the malicious ransomware WannaCry.
 
A military official said on Tuesday that the military raised its Information Operations Condition(INFOCON) by one notch to level three last weekend to protect against the malware.
 
When the alert is raised to level three, the military’s cyber emergency response is augmented and stronger defense measures are introduced to protect military computer networks.
 
INFOCON is a five-tier cyber threat appraisal system and level one is the highest alert.

Ransomware refers to a type of malware that holds a computer hostage by encrypting files until the user pays a ransom.