Precise Biometrics receives order worth SEK 4 million from Athena Smartcard Solutions for a secure id project with an Israeli Fortune 500 company
Precise Biometrics AB (publ), a world-leading biometric company based in Sweden specializing in user-friendly privacy-enhancing biometric security solutions using fingerprints and smart cards, has received an order from Athena Smartcard Solutions, a leading smart card vendor. The order to implement a secure ID project with one of Israel's largest financial institutions, resulted from Athena Smartcard Solution becoming a new Precise Match-on-Card(TM) partner. The initial order for Precise 100 series fingerprint readers and Precise Match-on-CardTM licences to implement the first phase of the project is worth approximately SEK 4 million. Delivery of the first phase will take place during fourth quarter 2005 and first quarter 2006.
During 2005, the financial institution evaluated biometrics and selected the Precise Match-on-Card(TM) technology for a secured ID project utilizing Athena's ASECard Crypto smart cards and biometrics to issue electronics certificates for safeguarding IT systems operated by bank employees. The secure ID will be used with the financial institution's Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) based information system to provide positive authentication for executing transactions and operations. The ASECard Crypto smart card is part of Athena's Unified Badge solution, providing logical and physical (RFID) access control capabilities on a single Photo ID badge. Based on Precise Match-on-CardTM technology, the ASECard Crypto solution is targeted for the banking and financial markets, insurance companies, and large corporations worldwide. "Biometrics and smart cards using Precise Match-on-Card(TM) is a perfect fit with the security requirements of the financial market," says Christer Bergman, President and CEO of Precise Biometrics, "which is one reason Precise Biometrics is excited about the project. "Additionally, we are thrilled to be working with Athena Smartcard Solutions. The company is a very competent and skilled partner and we look forward to many more projects together on the global market", adds Christer Bergman. "During this last year, we have integrated Precise Match-on-Card(TM) support in our performance leading, ASECard Crypto smart card, as a part of our Unified Badge solution. We found that Precise Match-on-CardTM is ideal for achieving a high level of security, without compromising user-convenience or privacy", says Jochi Fuchs, VP of Business Development at Athena Smartcard Solutions in Israel. About Athena Smartcard Solutions Athena Smartcard Solutions is a global smart card technology provider. Athena's solutions enable its customers to issue and manage smart card based digital identities used to secure local and remote network access, physical access, support digital signatures and biometric identification. Athena's solutions include the Athena Unified Badge, a contact/contactless logical and physical access solution for the enterprise, ASECard Crypto smart cards for National ID projects, ePassport solutions, and the high-performance ASEDrive smart card reader family. Worldwide, hundreds of corporations, government agencies, and financial institutions successfully deployed Athena's smart card based identity solutions. With headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, a development and sales center in Israel and sales offices and marketing partners in all continents, Athena supports its growing list of Fortune 500 companies and Government customers through major system integrators and partners. For more information, visit www.athena-scs.com or contact sales@athena-scs.com. ASECard Crypto and the Athena Unified Badge are trademarks of Athena Smartcard Solutions. For further information, please contact Christer Bergman, President & CEO, Precise Biometrics AB. Telephone +1(0) 703 405 8255, or +46 (0) 730 35 67 26 E-mail christer.bergman@precisebiometrics.com Precise Biometrics AB (publ.) is an innovative security company that supplies world-leading systems for fingerprint and smart card-based authentication. The company's solutions replace keys, PIN codes and passwords and enhance the integrity of ID cards and passports. With its proprietary Precise Match-on-Card(TM) technology, the company is a market leader within smart ID cards. Through its subsidiary Fyrplus Teknik, Precise Biometrics can deliver complete biometrics solutions on the Scandinavian market based, for example on fingerprint, iris and facial recognition. The product line includes systems for access control to buildings, computers and networks and for integration into ID cards and passports. The group headquarters are in Lund, Sweden. It also has subsidiaries in London and Washington, DC. The subsidiary Fyrplus Teknik is based in Karlstad and has regional offices in Linköping and the subsidiary Loqware is based in Gothenburg. Precise Biometrics is listed on the O-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange (symbol: PREC A). For more information, please visit http://www.precisebiometrics.com/