Hacking attempts targeting South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) are rising sharply, but the staff and budget dedicated to information security fall well short of government standards, data showed. Analysts say the fund manager, which oversees more than 1,800 trillion won in assets and the income records of the nation's workers, must expand spending on information protection.
According to data obtained by Rep. Park Yong-gap of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, the NPS currently has nine employees assigned exclusively to information security, or 5.36% of its 168 IT staff. Guidelines issued by the National Intelligence Service require that cybersecurity personnel account for at least 10% of IT staff. Under that standard, the NPS would need to add eight more positions.
The information protection budget also falls below the benchmark. The NPS has allocated about 38.1 billion won for IT this year, of which 4.999 billion won, or 13.11%, is earmarked for information protection. Meeting the government standard of 15% would require an additional 719 million won. In a written response to Park's office, the NPS acknowledged that it falls short on both security staffing and budget.
The gap matters because attacks on the pension fund are climbing steeply. Hacking attempts totaled 191,285 from January through August this year, an average of 787 a day and up 275.5% from the same period a year earlier. The NPS said no incident has yet resulted in an actual leak of personal information.
The agency has not produced a detailed plan to expand its security workforce. Its stated approach amounts to hiring two more information security specialists on fixed-term contracts next year. Even if both are hired as planned, the dedicated team would number 11, six short of the government standard. On next year's information security budget, the NPS said the funding has been secured as a mandatory requirement.
That has prompted calls for the NPS to invest more in information protection. Operating costs for the agency's intelligent pension and welfare integrated platform are set to rise by 2.125 billion won next year, while spending on operating its information security systems will be frozen and the budget for building and upgrading those systems will fall by 34 million won.
"Because the National Pension Service manages the lifetime income records and retirement savings of the public, it must start by drawing up a concrete plan to secure security personnel in line with government standards," Park said.