South Korean financial companies expanded their employment of information technology experts and IT-related investments last year as part of efforts to counter a rise in financial glitches and irregularities, a report showed Monday.
  

The country's 155 financial institutions, including banks, insurers and card companies, employed 9,136 IT professionals as of the end of last year, up 9.3 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the annual report by the Bank of Korea.
  

The biggest increase was seen in the employment of IT professionals who specialize in data protection, with the employment of such members of the workforce spiking 34.1 percent over the period.
  

The report also showed that 81.9 percent of the polled companies had chief information security officers, but only 22 percent of them were in charge of the post full-time, indicating the need to further bolster the number of ranking officials in the sector.
  

The companies spent a combined 5.5 trillion won ($4.7 billion) on IT-related investments last year, up 13.8 percent from a year earlier.
  

The budget earmarked for data protection accounted for 10.3 percent of the total amount, higher than the 7 percent portion advised by the financial watchdog, according to the report.
  

South Korea suffered a series of data leaks and phishing incidents at local firms last year as companies failed to build up secure information systems, only focusing on expanding new transaction platforms.  (Yonhap)