Public Institutions with Data Breach Incidents Will Have Performance Bonuses Reduced

From this year, institutions that experience information leakage incidents will receive a score of zero in the public institution management evaluation category. Considering that management evaluation grades can differ by just one point, employees of organizations with security incidents may see their performance bonuses reduced.

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According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 5th, the public institution management evaluation manual for this year has added a clause stating, "In cases of serious violations of regulations related to personal information protection and cybersecurity or occurrence of security incidents, a score of zero may be assigned." A Ministry of Economy and Finance official explained, "This addition was made to prevent damages caused by incidents where information held by public institutions is leaked and circulated in the market."

Until last year, there was no basis for assigning zero points separately in the "Safety and Disaster Management" evaluation area. Evaluations of whether an information security management system for cybersecurity was established had only reflected the results of assessments by the Personal Information Protection Commission and the National Intelligence Service. From this year onward, if serious violations of regulations related to personal information protection and cybersecurity occur or security incidents happen, the entire evaluation area will receive zero points.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance decided to strengthen evaluations related to information security incidents starting this year because personal information leakage incidents have been steadily increasing, especially in public institutions. According to the Personal Information Protection Commission, among the 208 reported personal information leakage incidents up to August last year, 74 cases (35.6%) involved public institutions. The main causes were hacking attacks, negligence by personal information handlers, and system processing errors.

The public institution management evaluation manual serves as the standard for assessing the management performance of public institutions for the following year. The Ministry of Economy and Finance presents management evaluation criteria annually through the manual to ensure public institutions align with government policy directions. The evaluation is conducted by a panel of private experts in accounting, management, administration, and policy, and is finalized by the Public Institution Management Committee.

Public institutions regard this evaluation as extremely important because, depending on the grade, not only the performance bonuses of executives and employees but also the tenure of executives can be affected. Since different grades can be assigned even with a difference of 1 to 2 points each year, competition to achieve a high grade is fierce. According to the evaluation results, employees' performance bonuses can vary by nearly 250%.

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