Designed to offer customer’s improved secure authentication based on two-factor authentication, the partnership will strengthen each company's position within the biometrics industry, which is predicted to reach $1.9 billion by 2005.
The new device will be based on SCM's smart card interface technology and Precise Biometrics biometric technology, employing fingerprint identification for secure authentication. The biometric smart card reader will offer corporations, government authorities, System
Integrators and PC OEMs a single product to perform security sensitive applications such as online transactions and network or physical access.
"Biometrics is forecasted to reach several billion dollars and we have already seen organizations include this technology as a key element of future security implementations," said Jason Schouw, Vice President, and Americas for SCM Microsystems. "The addition of biometrics to the smart card reader is the natural step to improving security measures. This partnership with Precise Biometrics delivers years of biometric knowledge to our customers, as well as expands both companies' worldwide presence."
"Marrying the highly accurate identification capabilities of biometrics with the remote authentication abilities of smart cards delivers the most secure access solution available," said Mårten Öbrink, Co-founder and VP Corporate Development of Precise Biometrics. "SCM is one of the world's leading providers of smart card reader technology with the ability to market and supply volumes worldwide. This is an important step for us in deploying Precise
Match-on-CardŌ technology as an industry standard."
The co-branded biometric smart card reader will be available in Q3 of 2002.