With participation from Professor Insu Yun’s research team at KAIST’s School of Electrical Engineering, Samsung Research, POSTECH, and Georgia Institute of Technology formed “Team Atlanta” and won first place in the AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) hosted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at the world’s largest hacking conference, DEF CON 33, held in Las Vegas on August 8 (local time).
Led by Taesoo Kim of Samsung Research and Georgia Institute of Technology, Team Atlanta earned USD 4 million (approx. KRW 5.5 billion) in prize money, proving the excellence of AI-based autonomous cyber defense technology on the global stage.
The AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) is a two-year global competition jointly organized by DARPA and the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). It challenges teams to use AI-based Cyber Reasoning Systems (CRS) to automatically analyze, detect, and fix software vulnerabilities. The total prize pool is USD 29.5 million, with USD 4 million awarded to the final winner.
In the final round, Team Atlanta scored 392.76 points, beating second-place Trail of Bits by more than 170 points to secure a decisive victory.
The Cyber Reasoning System (CRS) developed by Team Atlanta successfully detected various types of vulnerabilities and patched many of them in real time during the competition. Among the 70 artificially injected vulnerabilities in the final, the seven finalist teams detected an average of 77% and patched 61% of them. In addition, they discovered 18 previously unknown vulnerabilities in real-world software, demonstrating the potential of AI security technology.
All CRS technologies, including that of the winning team, will be made open source and are expected to be used to strengthen the security of critical infrastructure such as hospitals, water systems, and power grids.
Professor Insu Yun said, “I am very pleased with this tremendous achievement. This victory demonstrates that Korea’s cybersecurity research has reached the highest global standards, and it was meaningful to showcase the capabilities of Korean researchers on the world stage. We will continue research that combines AI and security technologies to safeguard the digital safety of both our nation and the global community.”
KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee stated, “This victory is another proof that KAIST is a global leader in the convergence of future cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. We will continue to provide full support so that our researchers can compete confidently on the world stage and achieve outstanding results.”
