CK&B CEO Bae Ki-hyuk Receives Minister of Science and ICT Award at Software Industry Day

Bae Ki-hyuk, CEO of CK&B, which operates the genuine product authentication solution "HiddenTag," was selected as a "2025 Contributor to Software Industry Development" at the 26th Software Industry Day and received the Minister of Science and ICT Award. This recognition highlights the innovation and global industrial impact of domestic software technology in the fields of product authentication and counterfeit prevention.

Celebrating its 26th year, Software Industry Day is the most prestigious domestic event in the software sector, where the government honors individuals and companies that have contributed to the development of the software, AI, security, and data industries. The awards ceremony was held on December 1 at the aT Center in Yangjae, Seoul, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and co-organized by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and the Korea Software Industry Association (KOSA).

CEO Bae Ki-hyuk was highly praised for his achievements in developing genuine product authentication software using analog-based digital watermark technology. The core security technology of HiddenTag embeds encrypted digital information within physical patterns, creating a structure that is virtually impossible to duplicate or forge. The fact that this advancement was achieved solely with domestic technology, further advancing software security and industrial data sectors, drew significant attention.

Alongside product authentication technology, the innovation of the next-generation monitoring platform "HiddenTag E.Y.E (Elevate Your Enterprise)" was also cited as a key reason for the award. HiddenTag E.Y.E is a platform that integrates and analyzes genuine product authentication data, global distribution flows, scan patterns, and user behavior data using AI, enabling the automatic identification of high-risk regions for counterfeits at the national and distribution network levels. It also features a customizable dashboard with brand-specific widgets, real-time AI-generated summary reports based on data, and expandable monitoring functions that integrate external data, significantly improving the distribution management efficiency of global brands. The industry has highly evaluated HiddenTag E.Y.E for evolving beyond simple product authentication software into an AI-based brand monitoring platform, thereby expanding its industrial applicability.

Currently, HiddenTag has been adopted by more than 1,400 global brands in over 200 countries, with a cumulative user base exceeding 8 million. In particular, its role in standardizing product authentication and distribution management for Korean brands such as K-beauty and K-fashion in overseas markets, thereby contributing to the global expansion of domestic software technology, was also cited as a reason for receiving the Minister's Award.

A CK&B representative stated, "HiddenTag E.Y.E plays a key role in protecting the genuine distribution of Korean brands in the global market through AI-based distribution monitoring technology. This Minister's Award officially recognizes the innovation and global achievements of this technology, and we will continue to contribute to the development of the national software industry and the establishment of a global security ecosystem."