SK Telecom said on the 12th that "SK Telecom Passkey" received Grade 1 of the GS (Good Software) certification, the highest level of software quality certification, from the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA).
The GS certification is a national accreditation system that evaluates software for functional suitability, security, reliability, and more, based on international standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
The newly certified "SK Telecom Passkey" is a next-generation authentication technology based on FIDO (Fast Identity Online) that enables easier and more secure logins by using biometric methods such as fingerprint and face recognition, or device unlock methods like PIN and pattern, instead of password-based access.
Passkeys operate on the principle of public-key cryptography. When a user registers with a service for the first time, a pair of private and public keys is generated on the device; the private key is stored only in the device's secure area and is not transmitted externally. The public key is registered on the service server and used for authentication. Later, when logging in and the server requests identity verification, authentication is completed by signing with the private key stored on the device and sending the response. Instead of passwords being exchanged, only the signature value is transmitted, so no key-related information remains on the network.
This technology is provided as a software development kit (SDK) that supports diverse environments including Android and iOS.
SKT plans to use this certification as a springboard to gradually apply passkeys to its internal systems and proactively build a "passwordless work environment." After further validating the technology's stability in-house, the company also intends to expand it to external services.