KT bets W1tr on cybersecurity over next five years
South Korean telecommunications giant KT said Tuesday it will invest more than 1 trillion won ($724 million) over the next five years to fortify cybersecurity, amid heightened consumer concerns following a massive data breach at bigger rival SK Telecom.
The planned investment surpasses SKT's 700 billion won pledge announced on July 4. SKT, the country's largest mobile carrier, made the commitment following a large scale cyberattack and subsequent data breach of customers' USIM data in April, prompting calls for an industrywide security overhaul.
KT, however, said the investment was already in development prior to the SKT breach. Hwang Tae-sun, KT's chief information security and privacy officer, said during a media briefing in Seoul that a string of data breaches at major US carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, in 2023 prompted the company to take action.
KT, the country's second-largest mobile carrier, currently spends more than 100 billion won annually on information security, the most among domestic telecom operators. Under the new plan, it seeks to nearly double its cybersecurity budget to about 200 billion won a year, starting next year.
Breaking down the investment, KT plans to allocate about 20 billion won to strengthen cooperation with global tech firms for security partnerships.
'In terms of partnerships, we are not only considering Microsoft, but also exploring collaborations with other major global security firms, such as Google and Palo Alto Networks,' Hwang said.
Another 340 billion won will go toward strengthening the company's 'zero-trust' architecture ― a cybersecurity model that no user or device is trustworthy by default and requires continuous authentication ― as well as enhancing infrastructure for AI monitoring systems.
The largest portion of 660 billion won is earmarked for ongoing disclosures and public trust initiatives. The remaining 50 billion won will be used to expand cybersecurity workforce.
Hwang said the company plans to increase the number of personnel on its in-house security team from the current 162 to 300 experts.
At the media briefing, KT said it will launch a new version of its artificial intelligence-powered voice phishing detection service later this year. The AI-powered tool analyzes phone conversations in real time to detect potential fraud. The upgraded 2.0 version seeks to raise detection accuracy from the current 91.6 percent to 95 percent, potentially preventing over 200 billion won in damages.
The company said it is also upgrading its AI-powered spam filtering system for text messages. The enhanced program will be able to detect and block emerging types of spam, including investment scam messages and those that mimic social media conversations.
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