After President Yoon Suk Yeol's address to the nation, there is increasing interest in the small security companies that he mentioned during his speech.
During his address on the 12th, President Yoon noted, "There were hacking attacks from North Korea targeting constitutional institutions, including the election commission, in the second half of last year," and added, "The system security management company of the election commission was a very small company with significant lack of expertise."
According to Chosun Biz's reporting, this security company has been identified as Wins, a KOSDAQ-listed corporation. Wins is a security system development and service company headquartered in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province. It recorded revenues of 106.8 billion won and an operating profit of 23 billion won last year.
Wins is controlled by Chairman Kim Eul-jae, a businessman known for supporting former President Moon Jae-in. Chairman Kim holds a majority share (80.08% equity) in Geumyang Communication, which controls Wins. Geumyang Communication owns 21.93% of Wins, and Chairman Kim also holds 3.73% equity in Wins.
Currently, Wins is led by CEO Kim Bo-yeon, the eldest son of Chairman Kim, who holds 0.17% equity in Wins.
During Moon Jae-in's administration, Wins was responsible for security work for the election commission, which led to allegations of preferential treatment.
Kim Eun-hee, a lawmaker from the People's Power party, claimed last May, "The company called Wins, which has been in charge of security consulting for the election commission for five years, is an affiliate of Geumyang Communication, which has Chairman Kim Eul-jae, known as a supporter of former President Moon Jae-in, as its major shareholder." She added, "Although they selected the company in the guise of a public bidding process, in reality, it was a negotiated contract."
According to Rep. Kim, the election commission conducted "urgent bidding" for selecting an integrated control and security system operator in 2018 and 2022 but ended up negotiating a contract with Wins following two failed bids resulting from single bidding.