US Gov't Certifies Bioscrypt

TORONTO -- Bioscrypt Inc. (TSX: BYT), announced today that its minutiae-matching fingerprint technology was included in a list of products certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for use in the United States government's Personal Identity Verification (PIV) system whereby all US federal employees and contractors are issued cards containing biometric information.

The list of certified biometric vendors was released by NIST following the Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Test (MINEX), an extensive program that took place over a period of almost a year. The MINEX program evaluated the performance of 14 providers of minutiae-based fingerprint template generating and matching algorithms, based on the American National Standards Institute 378 (ANSI 378) finger minutiae standard. Of the 14 vendors tested only six qualified for template matching and eight for template generation. Bioscrypt qualified for both template matching and template generation.

"It is especially pleasing for Bioscrypt to be on the list of interoperable minutiae-based vendors," stated Colin Soutar CTO, Bioscrypt Inc. "Bioscrypt has traditionally established itself as the leading supplier of biometric physical access control products using our award-winning pattern based technology. These MINEX results now demonstrate our broad range of technology offerings, which when combined with our field-proven products, show that we are ready to address the varying needs of both government and commercial markets."

The PIV system was developed as part of Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) which was published last year in support of the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD 12). HSPD 12 and FIPS 201 require that PIV cards be interoperable across all agencies. On the basis of MINEX, the use of the ANSI 378 standard was confirmed as the method for storing fingerprint information on a FIPS 201 compliant card.

The certified products list was issued by NIST on April 21st, following many recent government and industry conferences and symposia discussing FIPS 201 implementation. The report highlights the MINEX results that directly impact FIPS 201: the use of two index fingers in a 'Scenario 1' implementation - where a user's template is generated using one vendor's technology and matched using a second vendor's technology.

"The results of MINEX confirm that Bioscrypt is now an established provider of minutiae-based algorithm technologies, further justifying the acquisition of minutiae-matching technology and demonstrating our industry expertise," added Robert L. Williams, president and CEO of Bioscrypt Inc. "Furthermore, the evaluation complements our previous performance in competitions such as FVC 2002 and 2004, where our pattern-based algorithm outperformed the competition. As the biometrics market matures and the significance of commercial tests such as MINEX increase, we will continue to focus our energies on meeting the standards of commercial tests such as MINEX, rather than more academic competitions, such as FVC."

Bioscrypt Inc.