NEXT Biometrics (Oslo Bors: NEXT), a global leader in fingerprint sensor technology, today announced the company is joining with MK Group to launch an R&D program for biometric smart cards for banking and other applications. The program will integrate NEXT’s large-area fingerprint sensors into MK Group’s next generation smart card products. Vietnam-based MK Group is the leading provider of smart cards and digital security solutions for financial, telecommunication and retail enterprises in Vietnam and one of the largest in South East Asia.

The event organized by the People’s Committee of Hà Nội, the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) and the Việt Nam Software and IT Services (Vinasa).

During the summit, delegates shared visions, strategies and experiences of smart urban building and collect opinions from managers and IT experts on smart urban management, planning and development based on new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality (AR).

At the conference, MK Group had the booth with the aim of displaying and introducing solutions to help create smart cities in an effective and practical way.

Among solutions proposed by MK Group at the seminar, eTicket solution is of high interest for its especially effective applicability in public transportation, i.e. buses, trains, high-speed rails, automatic/smart parking. As a member of the two largest public transport card standard organizations, the CAPLYPSO standards of Calypso Networks Association and CIRPUSE standards of Open Alliance for Public Transportation (OSPT) Alliance, MK Group solutions can easily integrate electronic ticketing standards developed by various contractors for public transportation systems in Vietnam.

Besides, security authentication solution, card issuance and smartcard applications such as prepaid card payment, event ticket management solutions were also introduced at the conference.

The conference brought together over 600 delegates, who are leaders of central-level offices, Hanoi and other localities keen on building smart cities, associations, organizations and IT-related enterprises, together with nearly 70 foreign delegates from 20 nations and economies around the world.

Ha Noi, Da Nang City, HCM City and Can Tho City will be chosen to be the core of smart city networks in the northern, central, southern and Mekong Delta regions, respectively. Ha Noi is home to nearly eight million people, with an average density of more than 2,279 people per sq.km, even 42,000 people per sq.km in some districts.

The budget for implementing the program was lifted to 3 trillion VNĐ (more than US$127.7 million) from 1.25 trillion VNĐ, creating a foundation for Ha Noi to promote socio-economic development and become a smart city.

Hanoi, Vietnam, August 8th, 2018, the KeyPass U2F Token of MK Group Joint Stock Company has been certified by the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance as compliant with the FIDO U2F (Universal Second Factor) authentication standard.

MK Group Keypass U2F Token – the first Vietnamese Token security product earns FIDO certification

To be an official FIDO certified product, the MK Group’s KeyPass U2F Token has passed several tests to ensure compliance and meet FIDO Alliance’s rigorous security guidelines. In addition, MK Group must also commit to product stability, and compliance with the specifications approved by FIDO.

With MK Group’s KeyPass U2F Token, organizations and businesses will be more secure against the behavior of skimming, phishing and unauthorised access.

By diversified sophisticated tricks, online fraudsters create dummy links (i.e. phishing) that confuses users to steal all of the victim’s security data and attack them. This is always one of the problems of many businesses and organizations, especially banks, when cybercriminals often link the website of the bank to to fake website to trick customers into trading, in order to take control of client’s account and credit card information.

Thus, even though organizations guarantee to secure their computer systems in the most secure way, security experts can hardly control whether an employee or client is “accidentally duped” by unmanifest website or email. Once a security hole is formed, the damages that businesses and individuals experience are unmeasurable.

One of the organizations that has neutralized this problem is Google, with deployment of U2F security tokens for more than 85,000 employees. Google employees are required to use this device as a security lock for all computer logon activities. This solution has been successfully recognized by Google in against fraudulent attempts to target businesses for almost 2 years.

MK Group has completed the KeyPass U2F Token product, which is compliant to FIDO Alliance’s U2F standard, with an user-friendly interface for any organization or individual who wants to protect their data, social network or email.

Software installation is not required, users simply just have to register the use of “2-Step Verification” available on all FIDO U2F accepted home pages (Refer to https://www.dongleauth.info). Individual only has 3 steps to execute to implement the solution: login, press on the Token to verify the legitimate website and wait for the automatic login.

In the coming time, the R&D Center of MK Group will complete and apply the biometric sensor on the token to authenticate the user’s fingerprint before conducting authentication for any transaction.

According to Mr. Nguyen Trong Khang, Chairman of MK Group, “There are not many companies in the world able to do this. We are proud that MK Group is the only Vietnamese company that can self-study and provide “Made in Vietnam” security solutions that are globally competitive in quality and price by products like KeyPass U2F Token. With Smart Digital Secuirty orientation, MK Group is working hard to improve our security products and introduce to the market in the near future.”

About FIDO Alliance:
FIDO Alliance was established in 2013, based in California, US. The FIDO Alliance’s specifications and certifications enable a ecosystem of compatibel hardwares, mobiles and biometric applications based on validators that can be used with a variety of applications and websites. With this ecosystem, organizations and service providers can deploy powerful authentication solutions that reduce password dependency and get protected against phishing, skimming, and unauthorised access.

About MK Group:
MK Group was established in 1999 as a regional leader in digital security and smart card authentication solutions. With nearly 20 years of experience and continuous investment to improve quality of products and services, MK Group has successfully implemented and deployed a diversity of products of security authentication solutions and card issuance for governments, finance – banking sectors, businesses, telecommunications and transportation locally and globally.

(*) From Business Insider

On July 5, 2018, IDG Vietnam in conjunction with the Government Office of Vietnam and the Vietnam Digital Media Association will hold two technical workshops – the 2018 national e-Government Conference and the Vietnam Banking Technology Exhibition (Banking Vietnam) at the Hanoi Deawoo Hotel. MK Group will continue to sponsor badges for participants at the events.

The 2018 National Conference on e-Government titled “Developing e-Government towards a modern administration” will take place in the morning of July 5, 2018. The conference will focus on exchange activities, assessment of e-government implementation at local levels and providing solutions for the application of information technology in the development of e-government to strengthen the management capacity of state agencies and improve the level of satisfaction of individuals and enterprises for the public services.

The conference was followed by the 2018 Vietnam Banking Exhibition titled ” Promoting contactless payment: Towards effective digital economy and e-government development” in the afternoon. The event is expected to share information and initiatives important for the development of contactless payment in Vietnam as well as recommendations, suggestions and solutions by national and international experts in the field of finance, banking, and information technology.

This is a great opportunity for technology experts to share and discuss comprehensive IT solutions which can be useful for administration reform, capacity improvement of state agencies and the development of a modern and effective e-government with application of advanced technology in the world, bringing great satisfaction and safety for Vietnamese consumers.

At present, financial and banking institutions in Vietnam are facing up to many challenges with a view to enhancing the security for cardholders and financial transactions. In 2017, there were many card frauds occurred, causing serious socio-economic damage. Not only that, banks deal with the warning of international card scheme that issuers have to bear the risk of issuing their magnetic stripe cards. In compliance with the requirements of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Vietnamese banks must complete the migration from magnetic stripe cards to chip cards under VCCS project by 2020.

With its 19 years of experience in developing and implementing card programs for the financial and banking sector, MK Smart understands the challenges and problems of banks in migrating to chip cards in accordance with SBV regulations. MK Smart and Infineon co-organized the workshop “Success Factor for VCCS Migration” on the morning of March 13 at Pullman Hanoi Hotel and March 15 at Riverside Palace Tp.Ho Chi Minh, to help banks migrate successfully in short period with optimal cost and satisfying all standards promulgated.

Encapsulated in a half-day seminar, experts from MK Smart and Infineon select the core issues directly related to the deployment of banks in the context of only 3-year left for the migration as regulated by the SBV, including:
• Review of the Roadmap and regulations of the SBV on the migration to chip cards in accordance with VCCS
• The role of MK Smart and Infineon in supporting banks to migrate
• Highlights of Infineon Chip products for contactless payment cards and multi-function payment cards
• Flexible migration solution packages based on budget of banks (Software; Hardware Systems and Services).
• Commitment of MK Smart and Infineon in consulting – providing and supporting banks to implement the VCCS migration.

MK Smart and Infineon expect that after the seminar, financial institutions will have more choices in accordance with their budget and card issuance capacity so that Vietnam banks could successfully migrate from magnetic stripe card to chip card under VCCS by 2020.