AI drives autonomous security era: A look at South Korea's cybersecurity landscape at ISEC 2026

The International Security Conference (ISEC 2026), held in Seoul, underscored the critical shift towards autonomous security systems in the face of rapidly evolving cyber threats. Under the theme "Autonomous Security Powered by AI," the two-day event brought together over 8,000 cybersecurity professionals and 237 companies to explore the future of defense in an AI-driven landscape.

Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to automate every stage of an attack, from vulnerability scanning to crafting phishing emails and developing malware. This, coupled with digital transformation and the expansion of remote work, has broadened the attack surface across networks, endpoints, and cloud environments. Consequently, the industry recognizes an urgent need to transition to "Autonomous Defense" systems that can handle threat detection, analysis, response, and learning without human intervention.

South Korean cybersecurity firms presented a range of innovative AI-powered solutions. Logpresso showcased its next-generation XDR platform, Logpresso Sonar 5.0, integrating various security functions like attack surface management (ASM) and endpoint detection and response (EDR). Fortinet highlighted its integrated AI security platform, FortiAI, designed to automate security operations and protect AI models themselves. East Security introduced an AI-enhanced EDR solution, AlYac EDR 1.0, and AhnLab presented its unified security platform, AhnLab PLUS, aiming to minimize blind spots and enhance response capabilities.

Other companies like Igloo Corporation focused on AI-driven security operations centers (SOCs), while S2W and SandsLab introduced platforms for threat intelligence and risk management. Wiz Korea demonstrated AI-based insider threat detection, and Mobinil showcased AI semiconductor-based security solutions for edge computing. LG Uplus presented its enterprise security portfolio, including identity and access management and cloud-based security platforms. The collective showcase emphasized Korea's commitment to advancing its cybersecurity posture through AI integration and autonomous defense capabilities.