Hancom, also known as Hancom, said on Feb. 19 it signed a contract with Cyberlinks (CYBERLINKS CO.,LTD.), a company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard market, to supply its AI facial recognition solution Hancom Auth (HANCOM AUTH).

Cyberlinks is a mid-sized IT company that provides cloud services specialised for the public and retail sectors in Japan and has established a presence in the identity verification and trust business there. It is also a platform operator for the public personal authentication service (JPKI) that uses Japan's government-issued ID card, the My Number Card.

Under the deal, Cyberlinks selected Hancom as a strategic partner and will move to upgrade its remote identity verification (eKYC) service. Cyberlinks plans to adopt Hancom's technology and expand sales efforts to existing corporate and local government customers using its cloud services, as well as new customers pushing process innovation, with the aim of increasing its share of Japan's eKYC market.

Hancom Auth supplied to the Japanese market was developed based on technology from FacePhi, a Spanish AI biometric company in which Hancom has made a strategic investment. It applies facial recognition technologies such as a liveness function that determines, in real time, whether a face is a forged or altered fake, enabling a response to increasingly sophisticated deepfake threats, Hancom explained.

Hancom plans to accelerate its entry into the local market by highlighting that a Japanese public certification operator selected Hancom as a next-generation partner.

Hancom plans to quickly conclude its ongoing push to set up a joint venture with Kiraboshi Financial Group, a mid-sized Japanese financial group, after establishing its Japan unit. It plans to manage future sales in the Japanese market through the joint venture as a base to maximise profitability and pursue order-winning activities spanning finance and the public sector.

Hancom CEO Yeon-su Kim (김연수) said cooperation with Cyberlinks, which leads Japan's public certification ecosystem, was evidence and a first outcome showing that Hancom's AI capabilities have been recognised in the global security market, especially in Japan where trust is the top priority. He said Hancom will combine FacePhi's global technological capabilities with Hancom's business know-how to actively target global AI security and DX markets, starting with Japan.