NEXT Biometrics, a provider of fingerprint sensor technology, and Softlock, a regional provider of information security, have announced that biometric smart cards with a joint technology solution have entered the testing phase of an African country’s e-government project
The biometric smart cards are equipped with NEXT’s large-area, fully flexible fingerprint sensor and Softlock’s operating system plus public key infrastructure (PKI) and biometric applets.
The smart cards will be used for secure two-factor authentication and as main element in an initiative to introduce a higher level of security in e-government projects. They will replace less secure PKI-based tokens plus PIN code in favour of the unambiguous authentication with the user’s fingerprint.
Alain Faburel, NEXT Biometrics chief sales and marketing officer, said, “Biometric two-factor authentication offers a high level of security combined with user convenience and holds good potential in e-government, enterprise, healthcare and many more application areas.”
Magdy Sharawy, CEO of Softlock, commented, “NEXT’s fingerprint sensor technology ideally complements our information security solutions. A seamless and intuitive end user experience is key for the adoption and success of security solutions.”
The current testing phase will be followed by a pilot project of the solution during 2020.
