December 4, 2002—New advancements in biometric security combining HID card and BIO-key biometric technologies have been announced by HID Corporation, an ASSA ABLOY Group company, and BIO-key International, Inc., a provider of finger-based biometric identification.
The primary architecture of the HID/BIO-key solution is to store a unique identifier on the card, and use a backend server to perform the final, secure authentication. This enables the use of legacy cards and systems, such as the HID ProxCard II (and all other HID proximity cards and tokens). It also allows for the power and performance of new technologies, such as iCLASS, HID’s 13.56 MHz read/write contactless smart cards and readers, when onboard memory is required.
BIO-key’s “True User Identification” is a highly discriminating and scalable biometric solution, says the company. By placing the biometric templates on a centralized server, all authentications, permissions for authorization, and security logging and monitoring can be easily handled. If a card is lost or stolen, a new card can be generated quickly and easily without doing a new biometric enrollment. Additionally, the power of the BIO-key biometric can assure that the same user is not in the database more than one time. These features help to stop identity theft and fraud while providing for cost reductions and security improvements. When there is no access to a server, BIO-key can also support onboard card storage of biometric templates.
Currently BIO-key is delivering solutions utilizing HID ISOProx II cards, with computer-based USB readers called pcProx readers. These solutions incorporate a user ID on the card with the biometric match being authenticated on WEB-key’s secure server. These solutions are part of BIO-key’s co-marketing efforts with Intel, Oracle, and others.
Interfaces for applications to WEB-key support full Microsoft-based architectures as well as full Java-based support. For more information visit HID or BIO-key.
