KFTC Launches OTP Authentication Service Based on Trustonic TEE Tech

“With our technology now embedded in more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide, services like this can simplify and enrich the user experience while also increasing both security and speed.” – Ben Cade, CEO, Trustonic

Trustonic technology is being used in a new mobile authentication service in Korea based on one-time passwords. The Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, or KFTC, built its OTP authentication service in collaboration with the company as well as Mirae Technology.

The Trustonic Secured Platform Trusted Execution Environment solution is critical to the service. With Trustonic’s TEE having been built into a wide range of devices, KFTC was able to build an OTP generator that resides in end users’ hardware. That means that when users need to authenticate, the OTPs that they use cannot be intercepted by hackers; in fact, the software involved is entirely isolated from a given device’s operating system.

As Trustonic CEO Ben Cade explained in a statement announcing the launch, with Trustonic’s TEE technology “now embedded in more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide, services like this can simplify and enrich the user experience while also increasing both security and speed.”

The service has already been embraced by Korea Development Bank, the country’s state-owned policy bank – a strong starting point that could inspire many more financial services institutions to follow suit. And on that note, in a statement announcing the new service, KFTC Advanced Authentication Planning Team Head Oh-sik Shim said that with KDB’s authentication system now live, his firm is “already working with a number of other financial institutions nationwide.”