When AI attacks, AI defends...MegazoneCloud's 'Halo' changes security paradigm

"With artificial intelligence (AI) technology, we have entered an era where AI attacks and defenses that were only seen in science fiction movies are now happening in reality. Cyber attacks have increased explosively in quantity due to AI technology advancement, so defenders cannot prevent them without utilizing AI."

Soo-young Wi, head of the 'HALO (Security Business)' unit at Megazone Cloud, said this in an interview with Edaily and emphasized that defenders must actively leverage the advantages of AI.

The unit head is a security expert with experience working at global security companies FireEye and Trellix, as well as Google Cloud Security, and joined Megazone Cloud in March of this year. Megazone Cloud declared itself "AI Native" this year and introduced "Megazone AIR (AIR)" as its AI brand, which integrates AI-ready solutions, and "HALO (HALO)" as its security brand, which integrates AI-ready security solutions.

The unit head said, "As attackers utilize AI, the volume of attacks has increased significantly. The time required for attack preparation has shortened, leading to a surge in the total number of attacks, and with AI being able to target multiple points simultaneously, the frequency of attacks has increased explosively."

He emphasized the necessity of AI in the security field, saying, "When AI is applied to risk analysis when an attack occurs, the analysis time is greatly shortened." He continued, "If a person classifies and responds to 1,000 items, AI can inspect all 1,000 items simultaneously. If a person sequentially proceeds through security monitoring, analysis, operation, detection, and response procedures, it takes time, but AI automatically moves to the analysis stage at the moment of detection, and the analysis results immediately lead to response." He explained, "In this process, seamless integration and complete automation are implemented."

He expressed concern that companies should not approach security merely as a cost issue. "Globally, security investment accounts for 15-20% of IT spending, but in Korea it is only 6%. China, known as the "hacking nation," invests 36%, the United States 25%, and Europe 20%, showing that countries with more advanced attack technologies invest more in security," he noted.

Security investment is not merely an expense but a strategic investment to protect brands from business risks. He said, "When a company experiences a security incident, it suffers a fatal blow and incurs massive financial losses." He added, "Especially in Korea, where productivity is prioritized over safety, if AI is used only for productivity improvement, it could pose a major threat. Security must be the top priority."

To respond to these threats, Megazone Cloud brought together existing in-house AI, cloud, and security experts and actively recruited new talent. As the importance of AI security has grown, the company made bold investments to create "HALO." HALO offers the advantage of replacing security personnel recruitment and aims to introduce Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) specialized services, which have become common in advanced countries like the United States, to Korea to enhance and streamline security teams.

He said, "HALO's motto is to provide customers with a safe journey and stable service," and expressed confidence, "It is a full-spectrum security service that encompasses not only system security monitoring services but also consulting and AI security architecture configuration."

He continued, "It is not easy for companies to hire specialized security personnel. Even when outsourcing, it is difficult to dispatch personnel skilled in security, and requests to station experts in specific fields are practically impossible." He added, "Many companies recognize the severity of ransomware damage but do not seek to understand the root cause of why they were infected. It is important to identify the cause through threat analysis services, but internal staff members find it difficult to implement due to increased workload. For this reason, expert services like HALO are necessary."

In particular, HALO is implementing an environment where AI can be freely utilized without concerns about information leakage even in the AI era.

He said, "When using LLM (Large Language Models), many companies completely blocked ChatGPT when it first appeared due to concerns about information leakage. The financial sector even has network segregation regulations." He explained, "HALO supports security design and construction to protect data through access control, encryption, AI model security control, and API connection protection, and also provides consulting for financial regulatory agency compliance."

Finally, he said with emphasis, "Just as Megazone Cloud successfully led cloud transformation in the past, in the AI transformation era, we will provide security services so that customers can confidently adopt AI while minimizing business risks."

Article Source: Edaily