Thales Brings Passkey Support to Colombian FinTech Platform

Thales has partnered with SoyYo, a Colombian startup that offers digital identity services to the financial services sector, on a solution that integrates passkey technology.

Founded in 2019, SoyYo has already developed an identity solution that lets end users save a digital credential on their smartphone, which can then be unlocked with a face scan during interactions with organizations supporting the credential. It’s a similar concept to the passkey, which comprises a pair of cryptographic keys, one of which is stored by an organization, and the other is stored on the user’s personal device and locked behind biometrics or a PIN.

Thales, which has been providing SoyYo with technological support for years, has now helped the company to integrate passkeys through its Gemalto IdCloud solution. The end result is two different types of passkeys: Device-bound passkeys, which take the standard approach of storing cryptographic credentials on a user’s device; and passkeys that can be synced across multiple devices and used for “low assurance authentication,” as the companies describe it, such as logging into a mobile app.

Thales and SoyYo’s announcement comes amid growing excitement about passkeys. Earlier this month, Google announced that it would start making passkeys the default login option for users with personal Google Accounts, with Senior Product Manager Sriram Karra and Group Product Manager Christiaan Brand asserting in a blog post that Google had “received really positive feedback” from users after the company first started rolling out passkey support earlier this year.

The major password management platform 1Password also recently announced support for passkeys, and the popular messaging app WhatsApp started rolling out passkey support for Android users this week.

“Passwords have been the fatal flaw in digital authentication for decades, but with the introduction of passkeys we are finally on the brink of a passwordless future,” said Thales’ Vice President for Identity & Access Management, Danny de Vreeze. “We are proud to offer passkeys to all our customers, including those in regulated industries. We are pleased to support SoyYo, an agile fintech, playing a crucial role as an identity provider, with a smooth migration to a modern, future-proof solution.”

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October 17, 2023 – by Alex Perala