Shinhan Bank Cut Security Budget 10.4% to Lowest in South Korea's Big Five Before 25,000-Customer Breach

Shinhan Bank allocated 40.591B won (approximately $30.4M) to its information security budget this year, the smallest amount among South Korea's five major commercial banks, according to Financial Supervisory Service data released on October 16 by National Assembly Political Affairs Committee lawmaker Park Dae-chul. The allocation reflects a 4.703B won (approximately 10.4%) reduction from last year's 45.294B won budget, placing Shinhan Bank last among the five major banks in information security's share of total IT spending at 9.1%. The budget figures follow a late September hacking incident at Shinhan Bank that exposed the names, phone numbers, and loan calculation limits of 25,000 customers, while KB Kookmin Bank and Hana Bank suffered smaller breaches during the same period affecting 119 and 89 customers, respectively. Among the other major lenders, KB Kookmin Bank allocated 86.075B won (approximately $64.4M) to information security this year, followed by NH NongHyup Bank at 80.134B won, Hana Bank at 63.635B won, and Woori Bank at 61.566B won after a 21.7% cut from 78.659B won last year. South Korean banks are now reviewing plans to expand next year's security budgets and extend inspections to employee work-support systems and externally linked services, while financial authorities pledged to review the sector's security management framework. "The share of information security spending within IT costs at corporations and financial institutions does not appear to be sufficiently high." — Park Dae-chul