"Artificial intelligence (AI) without security is a house built on sand. AI is a tool for defenders and a weapon for attackers. As AI is driving the evolution of attacks, we must use AI to drive the evolution of defense."
Park Sang-kyu, head of Palo Alto Networks Korea, said this at a press briefing for Ignite on Tour Seoul 2025 held on the 18th at the Westin Chosun Seoul Parnas in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Ignite on Tour is Palo Alto Networks' global event where industry experts and customers gather to discuss the latest trends in cybersecurity. At the briefing, attended by Park and Philippa Coxwell, vice president of Unit 42 JAPAC (Japan and Asia-Pacific) at Palo Alto Networks, the company announced new cybersecurity strategies for the AI era.
Park pointed out that Korea has recently become a concentrated target of cyberattacks. Park said, "When countless corporations in Korea suffer cyber incidents such as ransomware, they actually resolve them by paying cyber money," and added, "However, hackers share on the dark web that those corporations pay when hacked, which results in other hackers rushing in." Park continued, "When information about victim corporations is exposed on the dark web, other hacking groups make them a concentrated target," and added, "We are aware there are groups that guide victims to pay with cyber money, but meeting their demands will attract additional attackers."
Regarding domestic cybersecurity response, Park said, "The cybersecurity environment of domestic corporations is excessively complex and fragmented, and within an architecture where domestic and foreign security solutions are mixed, security capabilities are actually deteriorating," diagnosing, "They rely on legacy firewalls and maintain vulnerable virtual private networks (VPNs), while deploying dozens of security solutions yet failing to gain a single-pane view of their overall security posture." Park then said global corporations are moving toward integrating security.
Park emphasized that Palo Alto Networks also has a fully integrated security solution. As part of this, Palo Alto Networks unveiled three next-generation security platforms that day (Cortex Agentics, Prisma Airs 2.0, and Cortex Cloud 2.0). Park said, "Cyber hacking attacks leveraging AI technology have increased more than threefold compared with before, and in reality could be higher," adding, "The speed and volume of attacks are on a different level than in the past, and to respond, a strategic approach at the hardware architecture level is essential."
In addition, taking the Ignite on Tour as an opportunity, Palo Alto Networks officially launched the Korea branch of Unit 42, its threat intelligence organization, that day. Philippa Coxwell, vice president and managing partner of Unit 42 JAPAC at Palo Alto Networks, said, "There have been many cases where, when an incident occurred, global team members went onsite to respond," and explained, "The foundations, such as an incident response hotline, are already in place." Coxwell added, "When we discover new AI-based threats, we verify whether they can be handled with existing detection methods, and, if necessary, we develop and apply new detection solutions."
Park also offered recommendations for corporations to respond to cyber threats. Park said, "Immediately upgrade all security systems in use, abolish VPNs, which are identified as a major infiltration route for hackers, and transition to secure access service edge (SASE) based on zero trust," and added, "At the same time, instead of maintaining complex security configurations, integrate around a platform to simplify operations, and transform the security operations center (SOC) operating model itself through AI-based security and automation." Park added, "Chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) need to secure visibility that allows them to see the enterprise-wide security posture at a glance."
Palo Alto Networks is also starting preparations to enter the domestic public market. Park said, "I felt that Korea's cybersecurity posture is very serious not only in private corporations but also in the public institutional sector, which raised the question of how we should support it as a global cybersecurity leader corporation," and added, "We judge that a major wave of change will come to various regulations in the public market and are proactively preparing the business."