Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the cybersecurity landscape, compressing tasks that once required days of research and coordination into seconds. As a result, corporate cybersecurity has quickly evolved into a national policy concern, fueled in part by a new generation of security-focused AI known as the Mythos model.
For decades, cybersecurity has operated along a familiar axis: time. Vulnerabilities were discovered, analyzed, patched and updated in a continuous cycle. The underlying assumption was simple: If defenders could identify weaknesses first, they could secure systems before attackers had the chance to exploit them.
The Mythos model challenges that premise. As vulnerability detection, exploit generation and even execution become increasingly automated, cybersecurity is shifting from a question of thoroughness to one of speed. The prospect of attacks succeeding before defenders even recognize the threat is no longer theoretical — it is becoming a plausible reality.
This shift matters because cyber incidents rarely stop at a single company. Modern economies are built on deeply interconnected digital supply chains, where a single weak link can cascade across partners, customers and entire industries. What once appeared to be an isolated breach can quickly evolve into systemic disruption.
Large companies are relatively well equipped to confront this reality. Many maintain dedicated security teams, sophisticated monitoring systems and established incident-response protocols. Smaller firms, however, operate under very different constraints. For them, cybersecurity often competes with immediate business priorities and limited budgets, and it is still too often viewed as a cost center rather than a long-term investment.
AI is lowering the barrier to entry for cyberattacks. As advanced tools become more widely accessible, attackers no longer need extensive resources or expertise to launch sophisticated operations. If attacks become automated while defenses remain constrained by limited resources and funding, the outcome is predictable: Security gaps will widen into industrial gaps.
Supply chain attacks have already demonstrated how vulnerabilities at a single partner can ripple outward to major corporations and financial institutions. As automation accelerates, the scale and speed of such incidents could grow dramatically. In this environment, the cybersecurity posture of even the smallest firm can influence the stability of the largest.
This reality raises a fundamental question: Can cybersecurity remain solely a corporate responsibility?
Today, power grids, financial networks, telecommunications systems, manufacturing plants and logistics platforms are all digitally interconnected. The line between private risk and public risk has blurred, and cybersecurity increasingly resembles public infrastructure — an essential foundation of modern economic activity.
Governments have long accepted responsibility for designing and maintaining physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and electricity networks. A similar shift is now required in the digital realm. Establishing baseline cyber resilience is no longer optional; it is becoming a prerequisite for economic stability.
Government involvement is particularly critical where smaller firms cannot cope alone. Security education programs, shared threat intelligence, coordinated response frameworks and standardized guidelines can help raise the overall level of protection. Tailored support initiatives for small and medium-sized enterprises will be essential to strengthening the broader industrial ecosystem.
AI is accelerating both attack and defense, but not every company can move at the same speed. If this gap is left unaddressed, it will eventually become a vulnerability for the entire national economy. The weakest links in the digital supply chain will ultimately define the strength of the whole.
The Mythos model delivers a clear message: Cybersecurity is no longer a matter of corporate choice. It has become a public responsibility that requires national standards and coordinated action.
There is still a window of time for preparation. If that window closes, the next phase of the cybersecurity era may no longer be prevention, but recovery.
Kang Seung-woo is the business desk editor at The Korea Times.
