Kona I, FIDO2-Based 'Jumun Card' Enters Japanese Market

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Kona I announced on the 7th that it has launched a dual interface type fingerprint card supporting both contact and contactless methods in the Japanese market in collaboration with the major Japanese trading company Sojitz.

The Kona I fingerprint card applies the FIDO2 standard, the next-generation online authentication standard, enabling fast and secure user authentication through fingerprint recognition without password input.

Recently, with the expansion of remote work due to COVID-19 and the spread of cloud service usage, security breaches such as personal information theft, hacking, and phishing on the web have significantly increased, raising interest and demand for multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions utilizing FIDO2-based biometric authentication.

In particular, support for the FIDO2 standard is increasing in ID-as-a-Service (IDaaS), which manages IDs through cloud services, and Single Sign-On (SSO) services that allow logging into multiple applications with one login.

The Kona I fingerprint card, which has started exporting to Japan, stores user fingerprint information encrypted within the card as a hardware security key and is equipped with a chip applying the latest security technology, ensuring excellent security.

Produced in the same size as a credit card, it offers superior portability compared to existing USB-type security keys and supports various communication methods such as USB and NFC, allowing use with PCs and existing contactless IC card terminals, making it simple to use. Additionally, it enables integrated online and offline authentication with a single card, allowing integrated login on websites and mobile apps supporting the FIDO protocol along with offline identity verification, maximizing convenience and security.

Kona I plans to accelerate market dominance by supplying fingerprint cards to authentication service providers through its partnership with Sojitz.

Jung-il Cho, CEO of Kona I, stated, “We plan to develop various products based on industry-leading digital authentication technology,” and added, “Starting with our entry into the Japanese market, we will strengthen our global authentication security market strategy.”