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BIO-key International, Inc., a provider of biometric software and hardware solutions for strong and convenient user authentication, has announced that a U.S. insurance provider focused on retirement products including annuities and fixed income, with total assets of nearly $250 billion, has selected BIO-key’s EcoID fingerprint readers as an added layer of hardware-based user authentication to complement its existing password-based sign-in credentials for thousands of employees.
Recognizing the need to enhance its existing password-based authentication with a second factor, the insurance provider reviewed several options and elected to move forward with BIO-key’s EcoID solution which has been tested and qualified by Microsoft for use with Windows Hello. EcoID is a durable, compact, standalone USB-compatible fingerprint scanner designed for commercial use. Installation is seamless as EcoID is native to the Windows Hello biometric sign-in platform and includes a 3-foot USB cord for plug and play functionality.
“Given the scope and potential business consequences of the recent Equifax data breach, organizations that house personal customer data face even greater pressures to take action in better securing their enterprise data,” stated Mike DePasquale, Chairman & CEO, BIO-key. “As this insurance provider discovered in their review, biometric authentication is an excellent and tangible step in protecting the enterprise. Fortunately, the cost of integrating biometric technology is no longer prohibitive, as hardware and software costs have been reduced dramatically over the past year.”
“For these reasons, a growing base of organizations are recognizing that they can no longer just hope their legacy security platforms will stand the test of time. The growing scope of security breaches is making the need for action increasingly clear, and we are seeing this in our customer dialogues, in the pace of inbound inquiries, and importantly in the shortening of the sales cycle in more and more customer dialogues,” added DePasquale.