Viva Republica, operator of Toss, said on Jan. 28 that its Chief Information Security Officer Ji Jeong-ho (지정호) received the People’s Merit Medal at the 2025 government awards ceremony for information security contributors hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT on Jan. 27.

The People’s Merit Medal is awarded to people with clear merits in contributing to the promotion of public welfare. Ji was selected as a recipient in recognition of raising the security level of the fintech industry by one notch.

The company said Ji focused on upgrading the information security system and embedding it into organisational culture. It said he strengthened management systems so the existing independent security organisation and governance would operate effectively in practice, and based on that drew continuous investment. As a result, Toss’ security investment expanded more than 15-fold from eight years ago and specialist security staff were steadily increased, achieving quantitative and qualitative growth, it said.

Ji said the award was the result of employees across the company working together to advance security based on the company’s firm philosophy that “if it cannot be used with peace of mind, even the most convenient service cannot last long.” He said he would continue to do his best to build financial services customers can trust most.