AI Used to Prevent Hacking... World's First "Hacking Defense Competition" Held

"AI Can Be Used for Both Attack and Defense"

For the first time in Korea, a hacking competition was held in which artificial intelligence (AI) was used to prevent hacking.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, Hae-Kun Bae, is delivering a congratulatory speech at the "2025 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hacking Defense Competition" held at COEX, Samseong-dong, Seoul, on the morning of the 1st. Provided by the Ministry of Science and ICT

The Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Internet & Security Agency, and the Korea Information Security Industry Association hosted the "2025 Artificial Intelligence Hacking Defense Competition (ACDC)" at COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul.

This year's ACDC is themed "AI for All, Security for All." It covers the three core areas of AI security: security utilizing artificial intelligence, ensuring the safety of artificial intelligence, and artificial intelligence platform security.

Participants solved problems within a limited time in an isolated cloud environment and earned points by obtaining hidden "specific strings." The online preliminary round was held over two days starting from October 31.

A total of 748 participants from 187 teams took part in the preliminary round, including red teams from major public institutions and large corporations, security companies that have won global hacking competitions, and universities with information security departments in Korea. The top 20 teams advanced to the finals, including "The Bald Duck" (Tiori single team) in the general division and "Make It Into a Beehive" (a joint team from KAIST, Seoul National University, Konkuk University, and Dankook University) in the university student division.

At the opening ceremony on the morning of the 1st, Gabor Cselle, Manager at OpenAI, Ian Lim, Head of Customer Experience for Asia-Pacific at Cisco, and Kwon Taekyung, Professor at Yonsei University, delivered keynote speeches. The 20 finalist teams then reaffirmed their determination through a ceremony.

On the same afternoon, Rao Surapaneni, Vice President of Google Cloud, and prominent domestic white-hat hackers shared their insights on AI security through live discussions and lectures at the "AI Security Insights Seminar." Over the course of the eight-hour finals, the five teams that demonstrated the most outstanding AI security capabilities were selected as the final winners.

The awards ceremony will take place on the morning of December 2 at the COEX Grand Ballroom. Winners will receive certificates, including the Minister of Science and ICT Award (1 team), the President of the Korea Internet & Security Agency Award (1 team), the President of the Korea Information Security Industry Association Award (1 team), and the CEO of LG Uplus Award (2 teams), along with a total prize pool of 60 million won.

Deputy Prime Minister Bae Hae-kun stated, "AI is becoming a powerful tool that threatens security, but at the same time, it can also be the most powerful shield to protect our digital environment. I hope this competition will go beyond mere rivalry and become a venue where our AI security talents can learn from and collaborate with one another."