SKT and National Police Agency Use AI to Block Voice Phishing, Identifying 475 Criminal Servers

SK Telecom and the National Police Agency announced on Wednesday (June 17) that they have upgraded their response system against telecommunications and financial fraud by strengthening cooperation in analyzing malicious phishing apps and conducting investigations based on artificial intelligence (AI) security technology.

The two sides explained that through this initiative, they have identified 475 criminal servers and prevented financial losses for 643 individuals over the past three months.

They added that this is equivalent to preventing approximately 163.8 billion won in annual damages, based on the average financial loss from voice phishing.

Building on the results of a pilot operation, the two parties officially established a system for malicious app analysis and investigative cooperation on Tuesday, signing a supplementary agreement to further enhance their capabilities in responding to telecommunications financial fraud.

This agreement details the implementation plans for the pan-governmental public-private partnership memorandum of understanding signed in October last year.

The core of the agreement is to combine SKT's AI security technology with the investigative capabilities of the National Police Agency to upgrade the system for preventing telecommunications and financial fraud, including voice phishing.

The two sides have been using SKT's self-developed AI agent for malicious app analysis to examine phishing apps secured by the National Police Agency, extracting information on command-and-control (C2) servers and utilizing it for investigations and damage prevention.

A command-and-control server is the core criminal infrastructure used by voice phishing organizations to issue commands to malicious apps, steal personal and financial information, and perform remote control.

SKT operates a rapid response system that provides information on command-and-control servers and the data of customers accessing those servers to the National Police Agency immediately upon the completion of analysis.

SKT also reported that it has established an AI-based automated analysis system for malicious apps, increasing efficiency by reducing analysis time by approximately 81%.

Lee Jong-hyun, Head of SKT's Integrated Security Center, stated, "It is meaningful that we can discover criminal servers that were previously undetected and contribute to actual damage prevention through SKT's differentiated AI security technology."

Oh Chang-bae, Head of the National Police Agency's Integrated Response Team for Telecommunications Financial Fraud, said, "We will continue to do our best to eradicate telecommunications financial fraud through proactive responses via public-private cooperation."

(Photo: Provided by SK Telecom, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.