CrucialTec, a leading fingerprint solution developer, said Thursday that it would develop a fingerprint authentication solution to be featured on financial authentication certificates for online banking services in South Korea. 

Once the authentication solution is developed later this year, smartphone users would be able to use fingerprint identification when accessing mobile banking services on their smartphones, instead of the conventional password-based authentication process, which is deemed vulnerable to hacking. 

“Utilizing the biometric identification solution will be able to solve the security loopholes caused by the current password-based authentication system, such as password leaks and stolen authentication certificates,” said an official from the fingerprint sensor company.

Currently, the fingerprint scanners fitted on smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone 5S and Samsung’s Galaxy S5 are not used for mobile banking because the sensors and software are still not yet considered to be fully secure, according to market observers. 

CrucialTec said it would be developing the new solution together with its subsidiary CrucialSoft and the Korea Electronics Certification Authority, a leading Korean certification institute.

The CrucialTec official said the firm would redesign the CrucialSoft Identification Solution (CSID) -- an identification solution utilizing biometric information such as fingerprints, the iris and blood veins -- for the new solution. CrucialTec and CrucialSoft introduced CSID in May.

By Kim Young-won(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)