Wikipedia:KOBIL GmbH

KOBIL GmbH is an information security company based in Worms, Germany. It was founded in 1986 by German Turkish entrepreneur Ismet Koyun. KOBIL employs approximately 200 people, 80 of which are located in Worms.

KOBIL specializes in the creation, delivery and management of trusted digital identities, authentication, secure data technology, one-time passwords (OTPs), cryptography and smart card solutions. It provides both software and hardware security measures. These include a banking as a service (BaaS) platform known as mIDentity.one, secure communication and digital signature systems, and multi-factor authentication and transaction authorization devices.

History
"KOBIL" is a portmanteau. It derives from a combination of founder Ismet Koyun's surname and bilgisayar, the Turkish word for computer. KOBIL's first development, in 1986, was a personal computer that featured a small additional keyboard. The additional keyboard enabled the user to trigger an encryption or decryption of the hard disk.

In 1994, the company had started to develop chip card terminals and offered a range of class 1-3 card readers. In 1996, KOBIL received the world's first patent relating to digital signatures. It also developed SecOVID and Smart Key, two new authentication and public key infrastructure (PKI) solutions. In 2005, two years after the launch of KOBIL mIDentity (the world's first installation-free smart card terminal), Microsoft founder Bill Gates referenced its positive impact during a speech in Munich on internet security.

KOBIL was awarded the Platinum European Seal of e-Excellence at the 2009 European Multimedia Forum Awards. Three years later, in 2012, it released its first application security technology. This technology took over the mIDentity name in 2014.

In 2016 it started work on a secure communication platform incorporating binding and non-anonymous communication, digital signatures, and business process flows. This was eventually released in 2019 under the name mPower. In the same year, KOBIL also released signPod, the world's first online PKI-based transaction verification device to include a machine to machine (M2M) eSIM card. The inclusion of an eSIM, alongside other software and hardware security measures, meant signPod could be used anywhere in the world. By the end of 2019, the company's transaction authentication number (TAN) app was used by up to 30 million people.

In spring 2020, KOBIL worked with partners including Technische Universität Darmstadt, the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego and the University of Würzburg to develop TraceCorona, a contact tracing app designed to help with Germany's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. KOBIL experienced significant growth in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Clients and partners
Among others, KOBIL provides services to Commerzbank, Dropbox, Airbus, ING, DATEV, German Bundestag, Migros Bank, Societe Generale, UBS, Erste Bank and ZDF. It has ongoing partnerships with SAP, SAB, Temenos, FIS and Bank-Verlag. The German Federal Network Agency uses KOBIL certificate authority technology to guard against cyberattacks