More than eight out of 10 domestic corporations experienced a security breach in the past year. The average loss for corporations that suffered breaches was about 4 billion won, up 37% from the previous year, and a shortage of security personnel was cited as the main cause.
Security company Fortinet on the 1st released the Korea market findings of its "2026 cybersecurity skills gap report." The report is an annual survey Fortinet conducts each year to assess the global cybersecurity talent landscape.
For Korea, in Dec. 2025, Sapio Research, a U.K. market research consulting firm, surveyed 60 domestic IT and cybersecurity decision-makers, and respondents included Oner and C-level executives across various industries such as manufacturing (25%), education (17%), and technology and professional services (8%).
The survey found that 82% of respondent corporations said they experienced at least one security breach in the past 12 months. That is the same level as the 2023 and 2024 surveys. Corporations that experienced five or more breaches reached 22%.
The expense burden from breaches grew even heavier. Among corporations that experienced breaches, 74% said they made an expenditure of $1 million (about 1.5 billion won) or more for recovery. The average loss was $2.6 million (about 3.9 billion won), a 37% increase from the previous year's $1.9 million (about 2.85 billion won).
Responses saying recovery took more than one month rose to 61% from 48% the previous year, and the average recovery period lengthened from 1.7 months to 2.2 months. The most frequent attack types were DoS/DDoS attacks (39%), phishing (37%), and ransomware (35%).
Respondents most frequently cited "a lack of cybersecurity skills and trained personnel" (65%) as the main cause of breaches. That was followed by "a lack of security solutions needed by the organization" (55%), "a lack of security awareness" (47%), and "a lack of investment understanding by management" (45%).
Fortinet also assessed that the global threat landscape is rapidly worsening. According to the "2026 global threat landscape report," the number of ransomware victims worldwide rose 389% from the previous year, and the time from vulnerability disclosure to the first attack attempt shortened from an average of 4.76 days to the 24–48 hour range.
Among domestic respondent corporations, 72% said they are either actively using or experimenting with AI-based cybersecurity solutions. However, responses saying AI-based security tools help improve team efficiency fell to 68%, down 20 percentage points from the previous year (88%).
Ban Khun, acting country manager of Fortinet Korea, said, "This survey shows that domestic corporations are adopting AI for cybersecurity but are exposed to threats because they have not secured the personnel and governance to operate it," and added, "For AI utilization in security to translate into tangible results, the introduction of tools must be accompanied by training specialized personnel to manage them and strategic responses at the management level."