AhnLab A-First researcher wins Signal Technology Research Institute Director's Award at Cryptanalysis Competition

[Financial News] AhnLab said on the 7th that the REPO team, which includes a researcher from its A-First threat intelligence analysis team, received an Encouragement Award (Signal Technology Research Institute Director's Award) at the awards ceremony for the 12th 2026 Cryptanalysis Competition. The ceremony was held on the 21st of last month at the Nine Tree Premier ROKAUS Hotel Seoul Yongsan.
The Cryptanalysis Competition is Korea's only competition dedicated to cryptanalysis, jointly hosted and sponsored by the Korea Institute of Information Security and Cryptology (KIISC) and the Republic of Korea Armed Forces' 777 Command. It has been held annually since 2015. Participants competed on problems across eight fields, from classical cryptanalysis to block ciphers and homomorphic encryption.
Lee Jeong-wook, a manager with AhnLab's A-First team, won the Signal Technology Research Institute Director's Award as leader of the REPO team, alongside team members Yoon Do-hyun and Yoon Ju-yeol, security experts from industry and academia. They identified the structures of the complex cryptographic algorithms required for each problem and analyzed their vulnerabilities. Based on this, they derived decryption techniques and source code.
Han Chang-gyu, head of AhnLab's research institute, said, "We will continue to proactively respond to new threats in the AI era, drawing on the threat analysis capabilities we have built up."
[email protected] Choi Hye-rim Reporter