[AI Revolution](135) AI Predicts Cyber Threats in Advance... AI Spera Raises 23 Billion Won in Investment

Interview with A.I. Spera CEO Kang Byung-tak
Accumulated 23 billion KRW raised from NHN, CEO Kim Taek-jin, and others
"The only company doing ASM," pride expressed

"We have been developing a service with the idea of automating the discovery of IT assets owned by companies and the analysis of threats based on artificial intelligence (AI)."

On the 13th, Kang Byung-tak, CEO of AI Spera, is posing at the AI Spera headquarters in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hwang Seo-yul chestnut@

Recently, at the headquarters of AIspira in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, CEO Kang Byung-tak explained the company's service, 'Criminal IP ASM (Attack Surface Management Automation),' as follows. He added, "We update 4.2 billion IP addresses and domain data daily, collecting and analyzing companies' servers and IT assets with AI to identify potential threats in advance." ASM is provided as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, and users can receive security inspection reports within a day. CEO Kang takes pride in AIspira being 'the only company doing ASM.'

AIspira is a promising cyber threat intelligence (CTI)-based startup that has received 23 billion KRW in investments from NHN, Kim Taek-jin (CEO of NCSoft), and others. It was founded in 2017 by CEO Kang and Kim Hwi-gang, a professor at Korea University Graduate School of Information Security, who is well-known as a former hacker. Along with CEO Kang, many former Nexon employees work as core personnel developing and supplying security solutions. The company not only offers ASM but also has the Criminal IP TI (Threat Intelligence) search engine solution that provides information to assess threats of searched IP addresses. Additionally, there are multiple solutions such as FDS, which detects anomalous users based on intelligence.

CEO Kang decided to apply AI to security solutions while working in security management at his previous job. He said, "Previously, security personnel had to perform security tasks quarterly. Since it was done by humans, some vulnerable information was sometimes missed. I thought it would be great if we could scan servers all at once."

On the 13th, Kang Byung-tak, CEO of AI Spera, is explaining his company's service at the AI Spera headquarters in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hwang Seo-yul chestnut@

The company's solutions are more famous overseas than domestically. Including free services, members from about 150 countries have subscribed to the solutions, and about 40 of these countries have made online purchases. Users also create example codes using the Criminal IP solution and upload them to the software development platform GitHub. CEO Kang explained, "On-premise solutions require installation technicians, take a long time, and have spatial constraints. Because ours is a SaaS solution, it can be adopted overseas as well."

Comparing the usage ratio of SaaS services domestically and abroad, he shared one reason why activation is difficult in Korea. CEO Kang stated, "Most people overseas use SaaS services, but the domestic usage rate is significantly lower. While this is partly due to national tendencies, the more regrettable factor is government budget." He continued, "Even if excellent subscription solutions come out, the government's subscription budget is far too low. Since there is no change from the government regarding SaaS services, large companies are slow to change as well."

CEO Kang plans to increase overseas sales in the future. He emphasized, "We are preparing for an IPO within three years. Before going public, we will become the first security company whose overseas sales surpass domestic sales."