Shin Yong-seok appointed as new presidential secretary for cybersecurity

By Chanwoo Yong, The Readable
Feb. 28, 2024 10:55PM GMT+9

Shin Yong-seok, previously the Chief Privacy Officer at Viva Republica, was appointed as the Secretary to the President for Cybersecurity on February 26. Marking a significant departure from tradition, Shin’s appointment represents the first instance of a private sector professional being selected for this role. Since its establishment in March 2015, the position has been filled predominantly by experts from the military or the National Intelligence Service.

The Presidential Secretary for Cybersecurity is charged with formulating policies and strategies for national security as well as coordinating and managing current cybersecurity issues. Shin will report to the third deputy director of national security, a position recently created to oversee the nation's economic security, science and technology, and cybersecurity efforts. Prior to the establishment of this role in January of this year, the cybersecurity secretary functioned under the auspices of the second deputy director of the national security office.

Shin, an expert in information security, boasts a diverse professional background that spans both the private and public sectors. In the early 2000s, Shin served as the head of the information security team at the former presidential office. He later transitioned to the private sector, taking on the role of Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft Korea. Shin later moved on to Nexon, one of the country’s leading online game developers, where he served as Chief Information Security Officer. Since 2016, Shin has been a pivotal figure at Viva Republica, the company behind the fintech platform Toss, where he has been instrumental in developing and enforcing internal security protocols.

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This article was edited by Kuksung Nam, reviewed by Dain Oh, and copyedited by Arthur Gregory Willers.

Chanwoo Yong is a reporting intern for The Readable. Majoring in cybersecurity at Korea University, Yong has an intense interest in cybercrime and cybercriminals as well as a passion for making cybersecurity and its surrounding issues understandable to the general reader. Yong aspires to become a bridge between cybersecurity experts and the public by translating the experts’ language into layman’s terms the public can understand. Yong has worked as a data engineer for an AI Platform belonging to Korea University Anam Hospital, where he participated in research titled “Deep Learning-Based Prediction Model for Gait Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury.”