Event
Summary
With the signing of the electronic signature bill into law, TEC expects
PKI and biometric products to gain momentum. The new law, signed by President
Clinton on June 30th, makes electronic signatures as legal and binding
as pen-to-paper signatures. PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure,
and is a technology that is used to authenticate the origin, or owner,
of a file or document through the use of both public and private keys.
Biometrics is also a technology that is used to authenticate the origin,
or owner, of data by using a form of personal identification such as an
iris scan or fingerprint scan.
Market
Impact
TEC expects this new e-signature law to bolster both the PKI and biometric
markets. This new law allows documents signed through digital signatures
to have the same legal ramifications as documents signed in traditional
wet-ink. Companies that formerly required wet-ink signatures such as hospitals
and insurance companies, can now increase the speed at which they process
transactions by implementing PKI or biometric solutions.
Figure 1. Anonymous Data Corporation (ANYD) Rallies on News of
E-Signature Bill
User
Recommendations
The following companies offer either PKI or Biometric authentication products
that have the capabilities of capitalizing on the new electronic signature
law with their cutting-edge technologies:
| Company
Name |
PKI
Vendors |
Biometric
Vendors |
| eEye |
|
YES |
| Anonymous
Data Corp |
|
YES |
| Safety
Latch |
|
YES |
| Identix |
|
YES |
| BioPassword |
|
YES |
| Entrust |
YES |
|
| Lexias |
YES |
|
| PGP,
Inc. |
YES |
|
| Baltimore
Technologies |
YES |
|
| nCipher |
YES |
|
| Verisign |
YES |
|
| DataKey |
YES |
|
| Marshall
Software |
YES |
|
| RSA
Security |
YES |
|
In the biometric
group, Identix's easy to install laptop versatile type II PCMCIA card
BioTouch product is particularly interesting. The type II PCMCIA card
sports an on-board fingerprint scanner that can catalog multiple fingers
per user. The scanner pokes out the side of your laptop,and is a little
bigger than a postage stamp. You pop out the fingerprint printer in the
same way that you pop out an PCMCIA modem interface, and put your finger
on the reader to authenticate. It interoperates with Identix's other products
called BioLogon, BioCard, BioSafe, and BioShield.
BioShield
is a password bank and application locking system. BioSafe is a product
which can encrypt and decrypt data through the use of the BioTouch finger
print scanner. BioLogon is a package that allows you to manage fingerprint
authentication for an entire enterprise, with the idea that fingerprint
authentication reduces password administration. People do not lose their
fingerprints, and no two fingerprints are alike.
The
above listed PKI and Biometric vendors will be particularly interesting
to follow in light of the new cyberlaw. If you know of any other PKI or
Biometric vendors that should be on our PKI/Biometric vendor and trend
list, please write and tell us why: security@technologyevaluation.com.