Korea Smart Identification
Pioneering Smart Fingerprint Identification Access

Driven by the global requirement of addressing the increasing security concerns and safeguarding an organization’s valuable data and assets, biometrics technology has turned out to be an instrumental development toward information security. Although, as its usage has expanded, thanks to its simplicity and ease of deployment, information security in biometric devices still faces significant vulnerability due to issues of information centralization and physical manipulation. Addressing this security concern around securing biometric information sharing once and for all is Korea Smart Identification (KSID) with its proprietary fingerprint smart cards.

Started as a Unisem - Smart ID Business Unit, KSID spun off into an independent company specialized in security. The company joining hands with Gemalto - a global leading digital security company, developed an innovative mobile authentication solution using USIM or NFC security card as an access key. From that experience, KSID learned and enhanced its expertise and began to focus on “Smart Card with Enhanced Security.” Leveraging its experience of working with multiple financial institutions and government agencies over the years, KSID today specializes in developing fingerprint smart ID cards for international organizations and has expanded its offering into more security-centric markets such as government agencies and private corporations.

KSID’s Fingerprint Smart Card provides fingerprint authentication for pre-registered security cardholders with a built-in fingerprint sensor. The authentication data is securely encrypted and stored inside the card, along with a built-in fingerprint authentication process. The card can only be activated by users’ fingerprints providing exclusive data access.

Dong-Su Kim, CEO of KSID, says, “Fingerprint Smart Card is the simplest and safest way to enhance your security without having to change your existing system/infrastructure.” The biometric information stored within the card is not sent to the reader or central server but is processed and stored only within the card. Moreover, the card is PKI certified and could be equipped with Personal Identity Verification technologies for more secure services in logical areas such as electronic signatures, e-mail, and electronic voting. The smart card also provides the best value by allowing Logical Access Control (LAC), Physical Access Control (PAC), and Visual Identification safely and efficiently.

From a market scalability standpoint, KSID’s products are developed with exceptional technological flexibility and with the help of product modularity that will enable the products to respond to the diverse infrastructure of its customers easily. From a physical point of view, the company’s products are reliable and have been tested by government-certified institutions in Korea for their defense capabilities and their ability to meet the high-security needs of the customers. “We believe that product development through customer-oriented value judgments is the key to success in the next smart card market, and we are closely watching the fast-changing information security market,” adds Dong-Su Kim.

According to Dong-Su Kim today, it is important than ever to effectively control sensitive data and physical access at a time when the next generation of ICT technologies represented by cloud and IoT are competitively flooding. However, the security token, which provides strong security, has never been so convincing in efficiency, even though a variety of products are competing. Keeping this in mind, KSID’s Fingerprint Smart Card was developed from the initial concept and aimed to be ‘the only key that customers carry in their pockets.’ Capitalizing on this business case and equipped with technical expertise and know-how of global security advancements, KSID is preparing to enter the global payment market. Dong-Su Kim believes that the fingerprint smart cards will soon become a norm where individuals will be using credit cards embedded with fingerprint sensors as the technology simultaneously gains more traction in higher security environments such as military, government offices, hospitals, banks, private safe-deposit box and many more. “Sometimes, small things make a big difference. By changing a small piece of plastic card, we aim to transcend the global security system to the whole new level,” concludes Dong-Su Kim.