Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) said on the 3rd that starting in Nov. 2025 it will add "palm vein" (hand vein) to the biometric system performance testing and certification program, expanding the evaluation categories from five to six.
The biometric system performance testing and certification program, the nation's first biometric algorithm evaluation system, has been operated since 2006 and has helped bolster the reliability of domestic biometric technology and its entry into global markets.
Recently, biometric technology has advanced from single biometric data to combining multiple biometric data and is shifting from contact-based to contactless authentication. KISA has been continuously expanding and reorganizing the testing and certification categories to proactively respond to these technological changes.
Palm vein recognition is a contactless biometric technology that uses palm vein patterns and is hard to forge or alter while offering high accuracy, driving demand especially in the financial sector. Until now, Korea lacked performance evaluation standards and systems for palm vein technology, forcing corporations to rely on overseas certifications, but the expansion into this category has laid the groundwork to obtain domestic certification.
With the addition of the palm vein category, domestic biometric corporations are expected to be able to undergo performance testing and certification in a wider range of technical areas, enabling them to objectively demonstrate the reliability and competitiveness of their own technologies. KISA plans to continue to advance the testing and certification system by reflecting industry needs and technology trends.
Oh Jin-young, head of the information security industry division at KISA, said, "We newly added the palm vein category to match the market situation in which biometric technology is rapidly advancing and diversifying," and added, "We will continue to actively reflect industry demand to enhance the global competitiveness of domestic biometric technology and spare no support so the biometric industry can take another leap forward."