[Exclusive] IBK Allocates 15% of IT Budget to Security... Plans Dedicated GPU to Extend 15-Year Incident-Free Record

3.9 percentage points higher than the average for the five major commercial banks
Information security budget rose 69.1% to 66.1 billion won last year
Strengthening AI security systems to achieve 15 consecutive years without a breach

IBK Industrial Bank of Korea allocated 15% of its information technology (IT) budget to information security, according to data. This was 3.9 percentage points higher than the 11.2% average for the five major commercial banks last year. To extend its record of 15 consecutive years without an information security breach, the bank plans to introduce a standalone graphics processing unit (GPU) infrastructure for security-specific artificial intelligence (AI) and build an AI-based automated security system.

According to IBK on October 11, its IT budget last year was 439.2 billion won, while its information security budget was 66.1 billion won, accounting for 15.1% of the IT budget. In 2024, it allocated 39.1 billion won of its 257 billion won IT budget to information security, a share of 15.2%. Last year's information security budget increased by 27 billion won, or 69.1%, from the previous year. The bank maintained the share at around 15% even as its IT budget grew 70.9% year over year.

IBK's information security budget share was higher than the average for major commercial banks. According to the “Information Security Budgets and Staffing in the Financial Sector” report submitted to Representative Kim Jaeseop of the People Power Party by the Financial Supervisory Service, information security spending as a share of IT budgets at the five major commercial banks—KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup—was 10.5% in 2024 and 11.2% in 2025, based on a simple average. In the same years, IBK's figures were 15.2% and 15.1%, respectively, exceeding the commercial bank average by 4.7 and 3.9 percentage points.

IBK said it had gone 14 consecutive years without an information security breach through last year. To extend that record this year, it is pursuing initiatives including the development of AI infrastructure dedicated to security operations. Amid a series of hacking incidents in the financial sector suspected of involving AI, IBK plans to operate an AI system dedicated to security operations to respond to AI-based attacks and introduce a standalone GPU infrastructure to support it. GPUs process large volumes of computations in parallel, supporting the training and execution of AI models. IBK aims to use this infrastructure to establish a standalone computing environment for operating AI systems for security operations.

The bank is also drawing up information security investment plans, including the development of an AI-based vulnerability management system and an automated security system. It will continue employee training to prevent the spread of malware. IBK conducts annual drills to prevent infections from malicious emails. The number of employees who were simulated as infected during the drills fell from 328 in 2024 to 123 in 2025.

IBK also operates a management system to objectively assess its information security and establish a systematic security environment. The bank said, “Through the ‘IBK Information Security Control System,’ we continuously update and manage information security-related internal regulations, guidelines and policies, as well as the operational status of individual security solutions.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.