Amore Pacific Corp. said Monday that it has become the first Korean cosmetics company to get an International Standards Organization 27001 accredation.

In order to secure the ISO27001 status, the nation’s largest cosmetics manufacturer underwent a rigorous set of internal and external audits for two years, the company said. 

In December, 2009, the company established the Information Security Center and hired more related professionals to strengthen its information security controls.

Amore also announced recently its new guidelines to ensure the safe handling of highly sensitive business and customer data.

“The certification will be an opportunity for us to reaffirm the importance of information security. We will continue to make efforts to better protect our technology, business know-how and customer information,” said Lee Yoon, executive director of human resources and support service.

The ISO 27001 certification extends well beyond basic IT security and applies to all aspects of managing an organization’s information security risks.

Amore plans to continue to make efforts to maintain the certification and to extend the coverage to its affiliated and overseas branches, the company said.

The manufacturer of premium brands such as Sulhwasoo and Amore Pacific holds almost 40 percent of the domestic market share and 1.2 percent globally. The company, which is currently ranked 20th in the world, aims to enter the global top 10 cosmetics companies by 2015.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)