[DigitalToday reporter Jin-ho Lee] Codegate 2026, the country's largest international hacking defence competition with white hackers from around the world, wrapped up its two-day schedule on a high note.

The Ministry of Science and ICT held Codegate 2026 at COEX in Seoul from July 23 to 24, made up of an international hacking defence competition and a security conference.

Launched in 2008, Codegate is an event to discover world-class white hackers and share the latest trends in security technology.

A total of 3,333 people from 88 countries took part in this year's online preliminary round. From them, 20 teams from eight countries in the general division and 20 participants from three countries in the junior division for those under 19 advanced to the finals and competed over two days.

In the general division, Japan's BunkyoWesterns won, receiving a minister's award from the Ministry of Science and ICT and prize money of 50 million won. South Korea's Ddadda and The Amazing Digital Orange! placed second and third, respectively.

In the junior division, South Korea's Kim Jun-won (김준원) won, receiving a minister's award from the Ministry of Science and ICT and prize money of 3 million won. Won Ye-jun (원예준) and Kim Philip (김필립) finished second and third, respectively.

This year's competition in particular featured an invited "AI hacker" jointly developed by KAIST and the Codegate Security Forum. The AI hacker drew attention by solving the same problems as human white hackers and finding vulnerabilities.

A security technology training programme was also held with the participation of the training coach team from U.S. security conference Black Hat. Kim Tae-su (김태수), vice president of security research at Microsoft, delivered a keynote speech on large-scale software vulnerability detection and remediation using AI.

At the security conference, domestic and overseas experts in blockchain analysis, cybersecurity and personal data protection shared the latest technologies and industry trends. In an open talk session, experts held a discussion on "cybersecurity in the AI era."

Programmes for general visitors were also operated, including a hacking experience programme, a session on solving competition problems, networking events and a virtual reality (VR) game zone.

Choi Woo-hyuk (최우혁), director-general for the Information Security and Network Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "To become one of the world's three leading AI powers, strong cybersecurity must be the foundation." He added, "We will foster core security talent to lead the AI era in order to respond to increasingly sophisticated cyber threats."