[Digital Today reporter Ji-young Lee] KB Financial Group said on Jan. 6 it officially launched a “Group Cybersecurity Center” on Jan. 5, the first by a domestic financial group, to create a safe financial services environment where financial consumers can feel secure.

The Group Cybersecurity Center, set up at KB Kookmin Bank’s Yeouido data centre east building, will establish a joint response system to external intrusion threats affecting 12 affiliates. It will also set group-wide security frameworks and standard security policies. The centre will strengthen proactive response systems by researching and analysing security threats from new technologies such as AI and virtual assets.

Its biggest feature is that it will operate both a “red team (cybersecurity team)” that checks vulnerabilities from an attacker’s perspective to prevent and proactively respond to cyber incidents, and a defence-focused “blue team (group integrated security monitoring)” that detects and blocks external intrusion threats through constant security monitoring.

The red team will deploy white-hat hackers from each affiliate. It will repeatedly conduct simulated hacking and penetration tests on non-face-to-face apps and websites to identify security vulnerabilities across the group in advance.

The blue team will work with KB Data Systems (KBDS) to run a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year monitoring system. It will carry out immediate reporting and response processes when abnormal signs emerge. Through what it called “organic collaboration between attack and defence,” KB Financial plans to proactively verify cyber intrusion threats and strengthen practical defence capabilities.

A KB Financial official said security is the foundation of financial services and the top value in protecting trust with customers. The official said cyber threats are no longer an issue at the individual company level but a core task that affects trust across the entire financial industry. The official said KB Financial will continue to build a proactive and systematic security system that actively uses digital new technologies such as AI, and will do its best to become a model case for security in the financial sector.