SecuGen's New Hamster IV(TM)Fingerprint Reader Earns FIPS 201 / PIV Certification from FBI
SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 12 -- SecuGen is pleased to announce that the Hamster IV(TM) USB fingerprint reader has been certified by the FBI as being compliant with Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) for single finger readers.
FIPS 201 places stringent requirements on the image quality of fingerprint devices as established by the FBI (http://fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/iafis/piv/pivspec.htm). "We are very pleased that our Hamster IV product meets the FBI specifications," said Won Lee, CEO of SecuGen. Mr. Lee continued, "FIPS 201 is an important milestone for the biometrics industry. For the first time, there are rigorous standards for the quality and performance of both fingerprint hardware and software, and we are proud to offer our partners both. The FBI's PIV testing ensures excellent image quality of the fingerprint hardware, while NIST's MINEX testing ensures accuracy and interoperability of fingerprint template extraction and matching algorithms. I believe that over time industry will come to adopt these standards since they provide objective, third-party certification against rigorous standards."
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed FIPS 201, entitled Personal Identity Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors, in order to satisfy the requirements of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12). One of the goals of HSPD-12 is to improve the identification and authentication of federal employees and contractors to securely access federal and other facilities where there is potential for terrorist attacks.
John Kim, SecuGen's VP of Hardware Development stated, "The core of our business is designing and manufacturing high quality fingerprint sensors. Our many partners around the world rely on us to continually improve our technology. These partners are involved in many implementations that require FIPS 201 certification, and we are very excited about being able to meet these needs."
SecuGen Hamster IV, Key Features
o Identical form factor and rugged, scratch-resistant platen of the
popular Hamster III
o High-resolution, 1.3 mega pixel imager, with larger native resolution
than the Hamster III (effective resolution 500 ppi)
o PIV standard capture size (12.9 mm x 16.8 mm)
o Capability to output monochrome image at 8 bits per pixel, 256
gray-levels
SecuGen will be demonstrating the Hamster IV live at the ISC West 2007 Conference held at the Sands Convention Center, Las Vegas from March 28-30, 2007. Contact sales@secugen.com for information on how to order the Hamster IV.
More information about FIPS 201 and the PIV program can be found at NIST's website at http://csrc.nist.gov/piv-program
About SecuGen Corporation
SecuGen Corporation (www.secugen.com) is the world's leading provider of advanced, optical fingerprint recognition technology, products, tools and platforms for physical and information security. SecuGen designs and develops proprietary and patented fingerprint sensors and algorithms and markets OEM components, developer kits, application software and fingerprint peripherals for a wide range of applications.
Source: SecuGen Corporation
CONTACT:
Winnie Ahn,
SecuGen,
+1-408-727-7787,
wahn@secugen.com
Web site: www.secugen.com/
