Lotte Card's Information Security Budget Share Plunged to 9% Last Year

Over 6,000 Join Lotte Card Class Action Lawsuit

The proportion of Lotte Card's information security budget has sharply declined over the past five years.

According to data submitted by the office of Assemblyman Kang Min-guk of the People Power Party to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 23rd, Lotte Card’s information security budget for this year (excluding labor costs) amounts to 9.656 billion won, which is 9.0% of its total IT budget of 107.844 billion won. In 2020, this proportion was 14.2%, but it has dropped by 5.2 percentage points as of last year.

Lotte Card saw the largest decrease in the proportion of its information security budget among the eight major credit card companies. During the same period, Woori Card’s proportion fell by 4.4 percentage points, Samsung Card by 3 percentage points, BC Card by 1.3 percentage points, and Shinhan Card by 0.7 percentage points. In contrast, KB Kookmin Card increased its proportion by 4.6 percentage points, Hyundai Card by 2.1 percentage points, and Hana Card by 0.4 percentage points.

MBK Partners issued a statement the previous day in response to growing calls for shareholder responsibility regarding the Lotte Card hacking incident. MBK Partners argued that it has invested in IT at a level equivalent to 40% of Lotte Card’s net profit and 1.5 times the total dividends from 2020 to 2024, refuting claims of negligent management.

Meanwhile, as of 8 a.m. on this day, the number of members expressing their intention to participate in the class action lawsuit on the "Lotte Card Personal Information Leak Class Action Cafe" exceeded 6,000. The proportion of Lotte Card's information security budget has sharply declined over the past five years.

Jo Jwa-jin, CEO of Lotte Card, is making a public apology for the Lotte Card hacking incident and customer information leak at the Booyoung Taepyeong Building in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 18th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung