BUSAN — The city of Busan is launching what it describes as the most advanced intelligent security monitoring system among South Korea's local governments, aimed at countering a new breed of cyberattacks that exploit generative artificial intelligence.
The city said its AI-based intelligent cyber security monitoring system began operating on the 1st. Officials said manual monitoring alone can no longer keep pace now that autonomous cyberattacks — in which generative AI writes attack code or identifies system vulnerabilities on its own — have become a reality.
At the core of the new system is a combination of extended detection and response (XDR) and a generative AI monitoring assistant. XDR links network detection and response (NDR), security information and event management (SIEM), and security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) to analyze security events comprehensively. When a threat is detected, SOAR automatically handles blocking and follow-up measures.
The system can search more than 10 billion records per second, cutting analysis of large volumes of security logs to minutes or seconds from the several hours it previously took. The generative AI monitoring assistant summarizes and classifies complex security alerts, allowing staff to focus on high-risk threats. Busan expects to block hundreds of threats a day in real time without operator intervention.
The city plans to further upgrade the system by using AI to analyze accumulated security data and detect signs of threats and internal vulnerabilities in advance.
"Cyber threats are directly tied to citizens' daily lives and to public trust in the administration," said Heo Nam-sik, director general of the Busan Metropolitan Government's Administrative Affairs Bureau. "Based on an AI-driven preemptive response system, we will create a digital environment where citizens can feel secure."
