The Security Landscape and Threats Transformed by AI Today's environment, marked by the adoption of AI technology, challenges traditional security paradigms and is bringing about changes across all sectors of society. While businesses are embracing AI as an essential tool for enhancing competitiveness, it is undeniable that new security threats stemming from this technology are also on the rise. Consequently, there is a growing need for businesses and governments in the international community, including South Korea, to seek new security strategies appropriate for the AI era. On March 10, 2026, the annual security seminar 'Next Generation Security Vision 2026 (NGSV2026),' co-hosted by IT specialized magazines Network Times and Datanet, focused intensively on these issues. Attended by over 700 security practitioners, decision-makers, and experts, the event highlighted how the widespread adoption of generative AI, AI agents, and cloud technologies has blurred the boundaries of enterprise IT environments. Traditional perimeter-based security models are increasingly proving inadequate in defending against sophisticated breach threats. During keynote speeches and main sessions, it was repeatedly emphasized that while AI technology is a crucial tool for enhancing corporate competitiveness, it simultaneously amplifies new security threats. Experts noted this duality, sharing a sense of crisis that AI directly impacts national security and corporate survival, extending beyond mere technological innovation. The seminar served as an important platform for exploring ways to leverage AI for innovation and growth, alongside methods for its secure application. Notably, key speakers at this seminar repeatedly stressed that the adoption of a 'Zero Trust Architecture' is no longer an option but a necessity. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) is a model that completely eliminates trust from the outset and verifies every access request, with identity-based security, data-centric security, and continuous verification as its core components. This approach blocks potential 'trust gaps' in traditional security systems and enables a high level of control over interactions between users and systems. Identity-based security prioritizes accurately verifying and authenticating user identities. The core principle is to move away from automatically trusting entities simply because they are within the network perimeter, instead strictly verifying the identity of users and devices with every access attempt. Data-centric security is an approach that builds protection systems around a company's most critical asset: data. By applying security policies directly to the data itself, regardless of where it resides or who accesses it, it prevents leakage and misuse. Continuous verification means not just a one-time authentication, but continuously monitoring user behavior and access patterns throughout the entire session and detecting anomalies. This allows companies to strengthen their defenses in increasingly complex network environments. AI application cases discussed in the session also presented important directions for driving innovation in security operations. As AI-powered attack automation becomes a reality, the necessity for innovation in security operations, integrating AI-based analysis and automation technologies, has been emphasized. It was further explained that for security teams to rapidly analyze large volumes of threat data and respond swiftly, AI-based threat analysis, automated response systems, and the establishment of integrated security platforms are crucial. Zero Trust Architecture: The New Standard for Security AI-based threat analysis provides the ability to identify patterns and detect anomalous behavior in real-time from vast amounts of log data and network traffic. Subtle changes and new attack techniques that might be missed by traditional rule-based systems can be discovered early through machine learning models. Automated response systems, upon threat detection, immediately perform blocking, isolation, and recovery actions without human intervention, minimizing damage. This promises significant achievements in defending against attack automation used by adversaries and effectively saves corporate time and resources. Integrated security platforms link various security solutions within a single framework, enabling consistent policy enforcement and unified monitoring. At NGSV2026, various technical sessions were held, including AI security, generative AI risk response, and API and application security, with real-world implementation cases shared. The generative AI risk response session specifically highlighted how the rise of generative AI is further accelerating the realization of security threats. AI-based attacks are becoming increasingly creative and sophisticated in data exfiltration, system disruption, and misuse of user information. Social engineering attacks using deepfakes, AI-generated malware, and automated phi
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