Naver Cloud has been selected as the implementing agency for the government’s “cyber security-focused AI foundation model” project.

It was chosen after competing with an SK Telecom consortium. The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Sept. 3 that an external panel of experts in AI and cyber security evaluated each consortium’s business plan and presentation. It assessed overall technological capabilities and development experience, the excellence and feasibility of development strategies, technologies and development goals, and marketability and ripple effects.

The ministry explained that the Naver Cloud consortium received strong marks for its development strategy and goals, including forming a large industry-academia-research consortium with technological capabilities and development experience and using multiple agents and harnesses.

The Naver Cloud consortium will be supported with a total of 256 Nvidia B200 graphics processing units for 10 months starting this month. Support will be provided first for 5 months, with additional support for the remaining 5 months depending on the results of a midterm evaluation.

The ministry will sign an agreement with the Naver Cloud consortium within this month and begin developing the cyber security-focused AI foundation model through GPU support. It will also form a working-level consultative body with the selected consortium to review project progress.

The Naver Cloud consortium will develop a model tailored to the domestic security environment through “full-stack” technology spanning AI models, infrastructure, security and data, under the task of “developing an AI foundation model to internalise national cyber security capabilities.”

Naver Cloud cited as a strength its experience deploying and operating foundation models in closed-network and on-premises environments in areas with strict security regulations such as nuclear power and finance. Its plan is to implement a security-focused AI model that can be used in closed-network environments by combining monitoring and defence experience from Naver services with data encryption and isolation technologies based on the Cloud Security Assurance Program certification.

It will also work closely with participating organisations in the consortium. LG CNS plans to draw on security-specialised organisations such as red teams, blue teams and AI security teams, along with its experience in industry-by-industry AI transformation projects. Group affiliates including LG Uplus plan to use telecommunications network-specialised data they hold for model training and demonstrations.