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BIO-key Licenses Biometric Technology to Develop Apps with Better Security

By Christopher Mohr, Contributing Writer

BIO-key recently announced that it had entered into a software licensing purchase agreement with China Goldjoy Group Limited (CGG). Under the terms of the $12 million agreement, BIO-key will have exclusive rights to source code developed by CGG subsidiaries used in the FingerQ biometric software portfolio.

Wall, New Jersey-based BIO-key International, Inc. develops various biometric identification solutions. It has an impressive customer list including AT&T, the FBI, McKesson, LexisNexis, and the U.S. Courts. Its business partners include IBM and CA (News - Alert) Technologies.

BIO-key has also developed a biometric security platform for Microsoft known as Windows Hello, part of the new Windows 10 operating system. The face recognition technology in Windows Hello has been found to be so effective that not even identical twins could fool it.

Back in August, The Australian published results from a test with six pairs of identical twins. Although there was one case where neither twin in the same pair could successfully login, there was never a case where one twin could use facial recognition to login to the other twin’s account.

FingerQ is a comprehensive platform of software and hardware elements that use fingerprint detection to authenticate. Protective cases with built-in fingerprint scanners are available for several smartphone models. This same scanning technology is available in dongles that plug into Android (News - Alert) smartphone and Windows PC devices. Software developers can use an SDK that comes in a basic version with limited features or a licensed version with enhanced security features.

BIO-key has wasted no time in developing solutions that leverage FingerQ. Recently it completed a mobile international payment solution that uses the technology.

The licensing agreement between BIO-key and CGG is another example of the software concept of reuse of code. It makes more sense to pay CGG $12 million to use proven technology, than to develop similar software from scratch. The decision seems to have paid off as BIO-key has already released a mobile solution using FingerQ.

As far as biometric technology itself goes, the future is pretty bright. Tractica predicts a more than seven-fold increase in the global market for the technology over the next nine years, from $2 billion in 2015 to $14.9 billion by 2024.

Passwords as a security measure may be simple to implement, but at best they only protect from casual snooping. Biometrics is a far more effective approach to authenticating users and BIO-key has done more than its part to advance the technology’s cause, and as a result, sensitive information like finances, medical records, and government data will be much more secure.