25 Companies Join Universities to Train Security Talent

* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six news items tailored to each reader type.

1. "Shortage of Experts": Companies and Universities Team Up to Train Security Talent

Key summary: Twenty-five companies including LG Uplus, EY Hanyoung, Toss and Saltlux are taking part in the launch of a personal data protection department at Seoul Women's University's graduate school, and discussions with the school on hiring master's and doctoral graduates have already begun. Backed by the Personal Information Protection Commission and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), the department will begin recruiting its first students in the first semester of next year. Chung-Ang University has created a new hiring-linked admissions track with LIG D&A, LG CNS, LG Uplus and Doosan Digital Innovation that guarantees employment at one of the four companies after graduation, while KT is in the process of establishing a contract-based department with Seoul National University for information security retraining. According to a security professor, senior corporate human resources executives have increasingly visited laboratories in person since late last year to ask for recommendations of top graduate students.

2. Hana Financial Opens Cheongna Era, to Hire About 230 in Second Half With Focus on Incheon Talent

Key summary: Hana Bank will hire about 230 people in its second-half 2026 recruitment, with applications closing at 6 p.m. on the 28th. The HanAXpert track, a combination of Hana, AI Transformation and Expert, is divided into six streams: investment banking, credit review and risk; pensions, trusts and wealth management; funding and foreign exchange; global; AI and data finance; and regional talent. An Incheon Hana shared-growth track has also been created to coincide with the relocation of the group's integrated headquarters to Cheongna in Incheon, alongside special tracks for discharged military officers and internships for vocational high school students. Successful candidates will attend training at the Hana Global Campus in Cheongna, Incheon, in late November.

3. Riding the AI Boom, ICT Exports Approach $60 Billion

Key summary: ICT exports last month surged 162.6% from a year earlier to $59.98 billion, a record monthly high. Semiconductor exports jumped 209% to $46.67 billion and exports of computers and peripherals expanded 383.1%, lifting ICT's share of total exports to 61% and topping 60% for the first time. Analysts attribute the strong performance to expanding demand for AI infrastructure and higher fixed contract prices driven by excess demand for memory chips. As export growth in the semiconductor and ICT industries continues, hiring demand in those fields is expected to hold up over the long term.

4. Analyzing Hundreds of Thousands of Compounds in a Day: LG's AI Autonomous Lab to Start Up at Year-End

Key summary: The EXAONE Discovery autonomous laboratory, which LG AI Research will bring into full operation at the end of this year, is a system in which AI handles the entire process from designing new materials to conducting physical experiments using robotic arms. In a collaboration with LG H&H, it identified ramcidil, a hair loss-relieving ingredient, from among 420,000 candidate compounds in a single day, and work on new materials with LG Chem (051910.KS) and GS Caltex is under way. Industry-specific AI models, including a manufacturing quality inspection model and a financial forecasting solution, were also unveiled, and the business is expanding to clients such as the London Stock Exchange Group and Koscom. With real demand growing for jobs that combine AI, materials, chemicals and finance, analysts say the case offers a useful reference for job seekers exploring careers in those fields.

5. KCUE and Uway Apologize for Application System Failure, Pledge Relief Based on Fairness

Key summary: A server error at Uway Apply occurred around 5:50 p.m. on the 11th, 10 minutes before the deadline for early admissions applications for the 2027 academic year, leaving some applicants unable to complete their submissions. The deadline was extended by an hour from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., but some applicants were still affected, and the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE) and Uway Apply issued formal apologies on the 14th. The KCUE said it will use records of applicants who failed to complete submissions because of the system failure to work out relief measures with the universities concerned, while treating fairness toward those who had already applied as its top priority. The council plans to review the application system as a whole and draw up measures with the Ministry of Education to prevent a recurrence.

6. VC Investment in Early-Stage Companies Plunges From 63% to 14% Over Two Decades

Key summary: The share of domestic venture capital investment going to early-stage companies founded within three years fell from 63.5% in 2002 to 14.1% last year, while total new VC investment grew more than elevenfold, from 617.7 billion won to 6.81 trillion won. With early-stage investment shrinking and funds concentrating on later-stage companies, critics say venture capital is drifting from its core role as risk capital. Experts stress that South Korea first needs to build an ecosystem in which law firms, venture capital, companies and the government work together as they do in the United States, citing the Cooley law firm's role in connecting Nvidia with investors in its early days as a model. For job seekers considering starting a company or joining a startup, analysts say career planning should take account of the structural shift in the early-stage investment ecosystem.