South Korea's information security market grew to hit nearly 12 trillion won ($10.6 billion) last year on the back of increasing demand for online services amid the pandemic, the ICT ministry said Sunday.

Total sales of the industry, which includes digital and physical security sectors, reached 11.9 trillion won in 2020, up 6.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT, citing a report from the Korea Information Security Industry Association.

The ministry said sales in the network security system development sector rose 9.7 percent on-year to reach 825.91 billion won last year, while that of security management system development jumped 11.1 percent to 345.05 billion won over the same period.

Sales from physical security sectors also rose, with that of security camera manufacturing rising 8.3 percent to 1.32 trillion won.

Exports of the overall information security industry rose 8.8 percent to hit an estimated 1.9 trillion won last year, while the number of information security firms stood at 1,283 in 2020, compared with 1,094 the previous year.

The ministry said the popularity of digital services and the growing importance of their security amid the pandemic led to better-than-expected growth for the industry's sales and exports last year. (Yonhap)