KT said on Sunday it has worked with the National Police Agency's integrated response team for telecom financial fraud to build an AI-based system to detect and block suspected phishing numbers, and has begun full-scale operations since January.

The police response team and KT have worked together since last year to extract AI-based suspected phishing-crime numbers to reduce losses from phishing crimes. KT's Future Network Institute provided a system that automatically selects suspected phishing numbers using an in-house AI model it developed. Analysis confirmed that about 75 percent of actual phishing damage reports occur from numbers associated with suspected numbers extracted by the system.

The police response team is using the suspected phishing numbers shared by KT to prevent damage by blocking them immediately through the "Circuit Breaker" system. Circuit Breaker is an emergency voice and text network blocking system jointly operated by the police and telecom companies since November last year. Suspected phishing numbers are immediately blocked from the network, and service is suspended if there is no objection within 7 days.

Since applying the system from January, a total of 9,822 suspected phishing numbers on KT's network have been detected and blocked. According to the police response team, after joint efforts on advance detection and network blocking, total phishing damage reports to police fell by about 2,700, or 25 percent, to 7,843 from 10,496 on a six-week before-and-after basis.

In particular, voice phishing involving impersonation of institutions fell 44 percent, while voice phishing disguised as loans fell 40 percent, showing a clear reduction effect across major types.

Lee Byung-moo (이병무), head of KT's AX Innovation Support Division and an executive director, said, "KT, as the first telecom carrier, worked with the National Police Agency's integrated response team to build a system to detect suspected phishing numbers using AI technology and achieved tangible results in preventing damage." He said, "We will continue to do our best to protect customers through cooperation with relevant organisations."