In The Boardroom™ With...

Mr. Dongpyo Hong 
President of CrucialTec USA

CrucialTec

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you for joining us today. Please tell us about your background.

Dongpyo Hong: I am the president of CrucialTec USA and responsible for new business incubation, leading strategic partnership, and the marketing of new IT-related products for smart phones. Prior to joining CrucialTec, I held key roles in business analysis, R&D planning, purchasing, and venture capital investments in Samsung Electronics’ headquarter and its Japan corporate office for 17 years.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Please tell us about your relationship with the FIDO Alliance

Dongpyo Hong: CrucialTec joined FIDO Alliance in 2013, along with Google as a 6th board member. When CrucialTec first met FIDO, we liked FIDO’s goal which is to build a standard protocol for an online authentication process to communicate with different industries in the world. CrucialTec has been building strong business relationship with many mobile clients throughout the world and we thought that we could contribute to FIDO’s goal as a biometric authentication solution provider. I believed that with FIDO, CrucialTec could create a huge synergy effect, not just from mobile but from Medical/Health device, wearable, automobile and the other consumer products. Also, we were very confident that CrucialTec can contribute largely in Fintech, Mobile Commerce industry in Asia through FIDO.

CrucialTec put every effort to hold a ‘FIDO Annual Plenary Meeting’ and South Korea was selected as a first country in Asia to hold the meeting. The ‘Fido Annual Plenary Meeting’ was held at Crucialtec in 2014 successfully. I believe this was great meeting to announce FIDO Spec 1.0 in later that year. The meeting was a turning point for FIDO to promote themselves in Asia, as a result, a number of members increased exponentially.

To tell you proudly, we prepared the meeting for more than 4 months and we got lots of compliments from other board members as a ‘detail-oriented company’ and ‘truly client-focused technology company’. I personally think this was the most rewarding moment as a FIDO board member.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Please give us an overview of CrucialtTec’s technologies and solutions.

Dongpyo Hong: To simply put, CrucialTec is an all-in-one provider of fingerprint authentication solution. I believe we are the only company that provides service in design, H/W manufacturing, packaging & modulization, S/W algorithm and coating. You can safely view that most of the Android phones with fingerprint sensor or will have such sensors are using our solution. As of now, many global major companies in Korea, China and Japan have chosen our solution and we hope the same in the North America market.

I also want to stress out that our reputation in technology did not happen in an instant. We have been developing this technology 7 years ago and it finally came to its fruition. We are planning to provide the security solution that must be needed for Fintech and IoT industry clients using our know-how, mass production capability and reputation.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: There are many authentication methods such as iris, facial and voice recognition. What are the benefits of fingerprint authentication?

Dongpyo Hong: Fingerprint authentication is the only method that can provide simplicity and security.
In terms of UX, iris, voice and facial recognitions have some limitations. For an example, in order to use iris recognition, the device requires high-res camera and the function also has to be ‘active’ all the time which will cause a battery issue. Facial recognition cannot be used in low-light situation.

For these reasons, fingerprint authentication is the only biometric authentication that provides simplicity and security.

Therefore, in my opinion, fingerprint technology will be used more widely than now, not just in the smartphone but in the forms of smart TV remote controller, wearable, automobiles, IoT as well as cloud network. We will be able to see this technology around us more frequently.

To provide more convenience way to use, CrucialTec has recently developed new technology that integrates a fingerprint sensor with a display instead of using a home button as a fingerprint sensing part. Users still can use the same functions such as internet log in and online payment service.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: In today's IoT environment, there are many mobility advantages and much greater convenience in making online payments. However, is our security also at a greater risk? What is your perspective regarding this issue?

Dongpyo Hong: On many IoT devices, users are not inputting the information but the IoT devices collect the information automatically instead.  IoT devices recognize the user by analyzing user’s patterns while the user is not noticing it. It’s a very comfortable feature because users don’t have to do anything. However, this method is very vulnerable from hacking because it skips even the minimum security checking process. This is the reason why we are focusing on fingerprint authentication. Users still can authenticate themselves conveniently against strong authentication process. Also, many handheld devices can be authenticated easily as well using fingerprint method without users having to do any actions. With these upsides, we believe that we can fix the gap of IoT devices’ security issue.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Please share CrucialTec’s future plan and a role in FIDO

Dongpyo Hong: As a representative board member in Asia, Crucialtec will play a lead role of creating an Eco-system in Asia by supporting Korean and other Asian companies and government departments to join FIDO alliance. We will promote and share information of FIDO and its specification to countries in Asia. If anyone interested, we can also help them to get FIDO Spec 1.0 certification.

I believe that FIDO specification will contribute remarkably in user authentication and online payment system. Not only on smartphone form but on Smart TV, wearable, automotive and IoT. Crucialtec will support FIDO to become a nexus of the multi-industry sector that provides upgraded authentication technology and user experience.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you again for joining us today. Are there any other subjects you would like to discuss?

Dongpyo Hong: There are many smaller sensors being developed along with fingerprint authentication algorithm. I see many possibilities putting such an advanced biometrics with smaller sensors into lots of devices. Please keep a close eye on us as we will provide convenience and security to many users.