UPEK, WinMagic Announce Biometric Authentication And Hard Disk Encryption Solution For SMBs

PRESS RELEASE

EMERYVILLE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Apr 20, 2009 UPEK', the leader in enterprise and consumer biometric fingerprint solutions, and WinMagic, the innovative leader in disk encryption, today announced their Biometric Authentication + Full-Disk Encryption Solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs). The combination of the Eikon Fingerprint Reader and SecureDoc Express Disk Encryption makes protection of data via user authentication and data encryption simple to deploy and easy to use for small and medium businesses. The solution will be demoed at the RSA Conference 2009 (booth #307) being held April 20-23 in San Francisco.

SMBs face significant risks and penalties when laptops or portable storage media, containing valuable data assets or personal identifiable information (PII), go missing. However, SMBs typically lack sufficient IT resources and policies to protect data relative to larger enterprises. Many data encryption solutions are burdensome to end users and are too complex for SMBs since they are often designed for larger business customers. The Biometric Authentication + Hard Disk Encryption Solution offers SMBs an easy-to-deploy solution that mitigates the risk of damaging data breaches and helps ensure compliance with regulatory standards, and at the same time makes the end user experience virtually seamless.

WinMagic's SecureDoc Express Disk Encryption allows SMBs to centrally deploy, enforce and manage government-grade AES encryption so that data is automatically encrypted "on the fly" without user intervention. Central reporting and audit trails enable SMBs to demonstrate compliance with regulatory standards. By allowing end users to simply swipe their finger to authenticate, UPEK's award-winning Eikon fingerprint reader strengthens traditional password-based user authentication and lowers IT support desk costs associated with password resets.

"It's simply amazing, since WinMagic enabled SecureDoc to accept pre-boot authentication with UPEK's biometric solutions, I rarely have to use a password to either authenticate to my notebook or logon to the computer system," said Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO and President of WinMagic Inc. "UPEK's capabilities have greatly assisted WinMagic in dramatically enhancing a positive customer experience when utilizing SecureDoc full-disk encryption," Nguyen-Huu continued. "Making the encryption of all data, including PII, transparent to the user was a main driver when WinMagic decided to configure a bundled offering to the SMB market."

For more information, please visit http://www.winmagic.com/solutions/upek_biometric_at_pre-boot.

About UPEK

UPEK, Inc. is the global leader in enterprise and consumer biometric fingerprint solutions. UPEK authentication hardware and software are integrated into laptops from the world's top five largest PC makers, as well as USB flash drives, external hard disk drives, and mobile phones from leading manufacturers. UPEK's ecosystem of over 100 hardware and software partners enables strong authentication solutions for market verticals including healthcare, banking, education, and government. UPEK also provides consumer packaged goods including the CES award-winning Eikon Digital Privacy Manager, the only fingerprint reader on the market that supports PCs and Macs. UPEK products make your digital world safe and personal. For more info, visit www.upek.com.

About WinMagic Data Security

WinMagic provides the world's most secure, manageable and easy-to"use data encryption solutions. Compatible with all editions of Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 as well as Mac and Linux platforms, WinMagic's SecureDoc protects sensitive data stored on portable media such as laptops and removable media including USB thumb drives and CD/DVDs. Thousands of the most security conscious enterprises and government organizations around the world depend on SecureDoc to minimize business risks, meet privacy and regulatory compliance requirements, and protect valuable information assets against unauthorized access. With a full complement of professional and customer services, WinMagic supports over three million SecureDoc users in approximately 43 countries. For more information, please visit www.winmagic.com