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Amid the growing sophistication of cyberattacks leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), practical training designed to counter AI-driven threats is set to enter full swing in the electric power sector. In November, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), together with the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, will host the ELECCON 2026 live-action cyber defense exercise—where humans and AI join forces to launch attacks against participating teams tasked with stopping them—to determine the winning team.

According to industry sources on the 7th, KEPCO will host ELECCON 2026 on November 11–12 at its headquarters in Naju, South Jeolla Province. Marking its sixth iteration this year, ELECCON simulates real-world power systems in a virtual environment where attacking teams launch real-time incursions against participants' setups while defending teams detect, block, and restore the targeted infrastructure. This year's finals will see a total of 64 participants across 32 teams compete, with eight teams selected from each of four categories: high school, university, control systems, and information systems. Applications will open later this month, followed by preliminary rounds next month.

As South Korea's sole live-fire cyber defense exercise dedicated to the electric power sector, ELECCON operates in a competitive format that evaluates response capabilities to rank participants. While co-hosted by KEPCO and the NIS through last year, the competition will now be co-hosted by three agencies with the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment joining this year. Accordingly, the scope of the exercise is expanding. In addition to technical drills centered on real-time attack and defense, the event will introduce situational reporting training to analyze attack vectors, assess disruption scenarios, and formulate comprehensive response reports.

A KEPCO official remarked, "While previous iterations primarily focused on technically defending against incoming cyberattacks, this year we plan to incorporate situational reporting drills that track precisely which systems came under what types of attack and detail the corresponding countermeasures." The official added, "Because this style of strategic training is increasingly adopted in recent international exercises, we are introducing it on a pilot basis."

Notably, this year's exercise will incorporate AI into actual offensive operations. Unlike previous competitions where attack teams manually identified and exploited vulnerabilities in virtual systems, offensive AI programs will now operate alongside human attackers. Defending teams will respond without AI assistance, relying solely on human expertise to detect and intercept AI-driven assaults.

In this setup, an offensive unit composed of KEPCO security specialists and external contractors will launch intrusions, while participating teams must defend against efforts to exploit system vulnerabilities, seize operational control, or disable networks. This year's training scenarios will reflect current cyberattack patterns and emerging threats, integrating automated AI-based exploitation techniques. With the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment joining as a co-host, the ministry's previously separate cybersecurity drills and competitions have also been merged into ELECCON.

Meanwhile, Korea South-East Power claimed first place in the public institution category at last year's ELECCON, followed by Korea Gas Corporation in second and the Korea Power Exchange in third. Korea South-East Power has maintained a strong track record in the public institution security category, securing top honors in 2022, 2024, and 2025.

                                                                                                          Bae Seok-won