ICTK's Quantum Cryptography Technology Reassessed

Stock Price Up 74.3% This Year
Security Enhancement Expected Amid Telecom Hacking Incident
Rising Importance of Quantum Security Highlights Technological Strength

The corporate value of ICTK, a next-generation security fabless company, has risen sharply this year. Expectations that demand for security chips equipped with post-quantum cryptography (PQC) will increase have led to a surge in the company’s stock price. Interest in ICTK’s technological capabilities has also grown following a recent hacking incident involving a telecommunications company.

According to the financial investment industry on May 16, ICTK’s stock price has risen by 74.3% since the beginning of this year. Even considering the 8.1% increase in the KOSDAQ index during the same period, the company’s return exceeded the market by 66.2 percentage points (P). Its market capitalization has expanded to 227 billion KRW. Individual investors purchased 15.8 billion KRW worth of shares from January 2 to the previous day. With an average purchase price of 13,005 KRW and a closing price of 17,080 KRW on the previous day, their estimated return reached 31.3%.

ICTK is the only company in Korea to have independently succeeded in developing both quantum key generation technology and quantum key distribution technology. The company is leading the establishment of a global standard security framework for cryptographic keys in the era of quantum cryptography. Last month, ICTK released three solutions to support the transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC). These solutions can be easily integrated with existing systems and enable a transition to a PQC environment based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. They are equipped with hardware security modules (HSM) based on physical unclonable function (PUF) technology, which is a physical anti-counterfeiting technology, allowing for the generation, storage, and management of both conventional and post-quantum cryptographic keys.

Globally, only three companies possess PUF technology at a commercial level. Leveraging its advanced technological capabilities, ICTK became the first in the world to commercialize PUF technology, which was once considered nearly impossible. The security industry has recognized the practical applicability of ICTK’s “unclonability” and “high-reliability authentication” solutions.

From the early stages of its business, ICTK established a development strategy focused on major overseas big tech clients. The company is expanding its customer base to include domestic and international fabless and system semiconductor companies, electronics manufacturers, and smartphone makers. ICTK supplies intellectual property (IP) to domestic fabless companies and to Rambus in the United States, and sells security chips and modules to telecommunications companies and big tech firms. ICTK’s ability to directly secure big tech clients that overseas competitors have not been able to acquire is a key competitive advantage.

As telecommunications companies work to recover from hacking incidents, security is expected to be strengthened across the board, including for servers and device chips. Applying PUF technology makes it fundamentally impossible to steal cryptographic keys. In the absence of competitors offering a complete quantum cryptography solution, ICTK is positioned to monopolize demand for PUF technology in USIMs, servers, and telecommunications equipment.