Intel invests in Digital Persona
The maker of personal identification systems based on biometrics closes a round of financing with investments from Intel and IDG Ventures.
The company also announced that it would help incorporate biometrics into the Common Data Security Architecture specification, a security standard developed by Intel that is an environment for developing applications for secure e-commerce and Internet transactions.
"This round of investment with Intel and IDG Ventures supports the potential for standard, low-cost biometrics security solutions," Fabio Righi, CEO of Digital Persona, said in a statement. "Demand for computer security is increasing rapidly, and biometrics--based on a unique human feature like a fingerprint--is innately more secure than other approaches."
Some of the industry heavyweights endorsing the CDSA framework include IBM, Netscape, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Motorola, certificate authority Entrust, firewall and consulting firm Trusted Information Systems, Shell Oil, and banker JP Morgan.
Digital Persona's technology uses fingerprint recognition and a number of biometrics hardware solutions.
Digital Persona is also readying the Windows 98 version of its U.are.U Fingerprint Recognition System for launch this July. The U.are.U product includes a mouse-sized sensor that sits next to the keyboard and plugs into the Universal Serial Bus port. That enables users to securely access a system or network with the touch of a finger, according to the company.
"Biometrics security solutions...will help make people comfortable using their PCs for private transactions, such as sharing medical and financial information," Jim Pappas, director of technology initiatives at Intel, said in a statement.
The amounts of the investments were not disclosed.
Intel is an investor in CNET: The Computer Network.