Cybersecurity deep-tech company ANAM145 said on Thursday it has entered the full design phase for an Anti-Tampering security chip to prevent the leakage of national core technologies.

Anti-tampering is a hardware-based security technology that automatically disables key data and functions the moment a weapons system, equipment or a semiconductor chip is physically dismantled or manipulated, blocking technology leaks and reverse engineering.

As South Korea establishes itself as an arms exporter, concerns have been repeatedly raised among the security industry and defence experts that design information or operating technology could be stolen through disassembly and reassembly after weapons are transferred overseas.

ANAM145 said hardware-level security is drawing renewed attention because software encryption alone makes it difficult to prevent physical analysis and cloning attempts that occur when power is off.

ANAM145 is a company founded on research results in hardware security and system security accumulated by researchers at Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security. It has verified the structural validity and feasibility of anti-tampering technology at the research stage. The company said the move into the design phase marks a turning point toward industrial application beyond proof of concept.

ANAM145 CEO Lee Joong-hee said, "While discussions of technology protection remain limited to software and network security, a completely different level of threat begins from the moment equipment is physically exposed." He added, "Without hardware-level security, it is difficult to fully protect technology and personal information not only in weapons systems but also in civilian areas such as vehicles."

ANAM145 plans to review potential applications across areas including defence, automobiles, industrial control systems, public infrastructure and AI equipment, and to pursue step-by-step industrialisation of domestic hardware security technology.