The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) is pushing ahead with the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 2026 information security new-technology support program. It also selected 18 projects to develop next-generation security products and services and 50 companies to carry them out.

KISA said on Thursday it invited proposals for 18 projects worth 12.04 billion won across four key areas: commercialising AI-based next-generation security products, fostering AI-based security firms, developing a Korea-style integrated security model and introducing zero trust. It said it selected a total of 50 companies by April.

The AI-based next-generation security product commercialisation support program, launched this year, is part of AX-Sprint, a joint inter-agency initiative to support the rapid commercialisation of AI application products. KISA held calls for proposals for 2 projects in information security and physical security under the latest support program.

The information security project is to develop an integrated security platform that uses AI to automate threat detection, analysis and response across all system segments, including networks and endpoints. The Sands Lab consortium, with participation from Genians, Logpresso, S2W and Axcelerate, was selected to carry out the project.

The physical security project is to develop an integrated monitoring and control system that links and analyses security data across different models with different manufacturers, types and versions, to prevent and respond to physical security threats such as intrusion and theft. The KUDO Communication consortium, with participation from Dtonic, Shinhwa System, Chung-Ang University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), was selected to carry out the project.

The AI-based security firm fostering support program backs the development and commercialisation of security products and services using AI. This year, KISA held calls for proposals under the themes of AI for Security and Security for AI.

A total of 9 projects were selected: 5 in AI security prototype development and 4 in demonstrations and commercialisation of AI security products and services.

The prototype development projects selected are: a personal data and large language model guardrail solution, Davinci SecureGuard (Iris Frontier, Gooroom Research Institute); an AI-based real-time on-device face authenticity verification and forgery detection solution (Nurilab); an intelligent AI agent-based one-stop solution for pseudonymising medical data (Dwich); a platform to protect personal and sensitive information within the generative software development lifecycle (SDLC) (AIDeep); and an agentic AI platform to build an autonomous security operations centre (SOC) (IGLOO Corporation).

The commercialisation projects selected are: an LLM-based autonomous offensive web application security vulnerability verification platform (Enki WhiteHat); a service that automatically detects security vulnerabilities in generated code and suggests fixes for safe use of AI (Sparrow); a face authentication-based solution to prevent photographing of PC screens (Terten); and advancement and expansion of a secure synthetic data generation solution (Cubic).

The pilot project to develop a Korea-style integrated security model focuses on supporting the development and demonstration of integrated security models based on collaboration among domestic security companies. This year, 2 projects were selected and will be 추진: an agentic AI-based autonomous integrated security operation platform (Logpresso, MonitorLab, Sands Lab, Tatum); and an integrated cyber intrusion response platform for control systems (OT/ICS) that supports deployment without changes (Manyinssoft, Amjin, SK Shieldus, S2NT).

The pilot project to introduce zero trust applies and demonstrates a zero trust security model in real-world environments to respond to a changing cyber threat landscape. A total of 5 projects were finally selected for this year's program.

KISA plans to support selected companies so they can raise the technological maturity of AI security products and services through project work, and secure a foundation to enter domestic and overseas markets through demonstrations and commercialisation.