Last year, the average annual salary of major domestic information security corporations was estimated to be around 60 million won. This is considered lower than the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, such as the internet, telecommunications, and gaming, and is identified as a cause of the labor shortage. As the demand for security increases in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), it has been pointed out that improvement in treatment is necessary for nurturing talent.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 1st, the average salary per employee of major domestic information security corporations was found to be 61.3 million won. The corporation with the highest average annual salary was SecuI, which reported an average salary of 79 million won last year. SecuI achieved sales of 151.7 billion won and operating profit of 19.9 billion won last year, representing growth of 6.0% and 15.8%, respectively, compared to the previous year. This corporation has been focusing its capabilities on the development of network security technology and holds the No. 1 market share in the domestic network firewall market.
The average annual salaries of Genians and AhnLab were 73.7 million won and 70.7 million won, respectively. Genians achieved sales and operating profit of 49.6 billion won and 9.8 billion won, respectively, which increased by 15.7% and 52.2% compared to the previous year. This corporation engages in network access control (NAC) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions, thriving as NAC and EDR gain prominence as security solutions in a non-face-to-face environment. AhnLab, a leading corporation in the information security industry, saw sales of 260.6 billion won and operating profit of 27.7 billion won last year, growing 8.9% and 4.8%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Fasoo and Hancomwith recorded average annual salaries of 57 million won and 53 million won, respectively. Data security corporation Fasoo reported sales of 46.1 billion won and operating profit of 3.9 billion won last year, which increased by 8.0% and 2.2%, respectively, compared to the previous year. Hancomwith, a first-generation information security corporation, turned to profit last year with an operating profit of 1.3 billion won, a shift from the previous year's loss. Igloo Security (49 million won) and MonitorApp (47.2 million won) had average salaries estimated to be in the range of 40 million won.
The information security industry experienced an overall increase in sales and operating profit last year, but recorded relatively lower salaries compared to large corporations in the IT sector. Last year, the average salary of employees at Naver and Kakao was 129 million won and 101 million won, respectively. IT service corporations Samsung SDS recorded 134 million won, LG CNS recorded 116 million won, and Hyundai AutoEver recorded 101 million won. According to the recruitment solution company BoltX, about the top 10% of the IT industry received salaries of over 100 million won last year.
The problem is that the low treatment in the information security industry is leading to a labor shortage. According to the '2024 Domestic Information Security Industry Survey' published last year by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Information Security Industry Association (KISA), the biggest obstacle for information protection corporations in technology development was cited as 'securing and retaining technology development personnel.' In fact, the average length of service for employees at major information security corporations last year was 5 years and 1 month. Fasoo had the longest at 6 years and 1 month, while Hancomwith had the shortest at 3 years and 1 month. Considering that the average length of service at large IT corporations is 10 years, this is relatively short.
In contrast, global security corporations are improving employee treatment. With the advancement of AI, the importance of cybersecurity has emerged, making talent acquisition essential. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced that cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. are expected to increase by approximately 32% by 2032. As of 2023, the average annual salary for a cybersecurity analyst in the U.S. is reported to be $120,360 (approximately 178.1 million won), with salaries for cybersecurity managers reaching up to $225,000 (approximately 369.9 million won). They primarily work for global security corporations such as Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler.
These corporations are also increasing their investments. U.S. cybersecurity certification and access control entity Okta announced that it would invest $50 million (approximately 739.7 million won) over the next five years to foster cybersecurity talent. This is part of the initiative for corporations to discover and nurture cybersecurity talent independently.
An IT industry official noted, 'Security is a field that requires expertise, but the treatment is low, causing on-site personnel to not receive proper recognition.' He said that in order to prevent talent drain, improvements in compensation and working conditions are necessary.