PubliCARD wins 1999 Computerworld Smithsonian Award; Prestigious recognition for a patented technology: VirtualTokens on smart cards protect intellectual property from piracy

Business Wire, May 12, 1999

FAIRFIELD, Conn./CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1999--

PubliCARD, Inc. (NASDAQ: CARD; www.publicard.com), today announced that its subsidiary, Tritheim Technologies, Inc., has won the prestigious 1999 Computerworld Smithsonian Award for its patented VirtualTokens(tm) technology, a smart-card based digital data security solution that prevents piracy. The award recognizes innovative uses of information technology that benefit society. PubliCARD expects to initiate beta testing of VirtualTokens during the year 2000.

How VirtualTokens work

VirtualTokens are electronic packets of information that are stored in secured memory on smart cards, readers and integrated circuits (ICs) provided by PubliCARD. Acting as access "keys" to various levels of intellectual property, VirtualTokens enable portable, smart card-based authentication for software copy protection, secure financial transactions, password management and data encryption. The technology battles the growing $14 billion software piracy problem and the ever-growing digital music piracy problem.

"VirtualTokens are an exciting technology that provide a low-cost, highly effective method to protect and deliver valuable digital data without encumbering the user," says Marc Postlewaite, president and CEO of PubliCARD's Tritheim Technologies, Inc. "VirtualTokens offer the highest level of security because they are embedded in hardware and kept separate from the software or data they protect."

VirtualTokens in action

VirtualTokens are designed to help, for example, video and music distributors who wish to distribute their products over the Internet without the fear of unauthorized duplication. Today, if a consumer obtains music to play on a virtual CD player, for example, that consumer can copy and e-mail that music to an unlimited number of other people. VirtualTokens block that duplication and unauthorized distribution.

Because pirating copyrighted material in digital form is a socially acceptable crime in America and abroad, software designers, artists and publishers are reluctant to distribute their products over the Internet," adds Postlewaite. "VirtualTokens can change that paradigm because they are low-cost, highly secure and can be delivered electronically or via smart card. VirtualTokens also are transparent to the users."

Key uses of VirtualTokens:

- Software copy protection

- Protection of digital music

- Providing private and secure Internet passwords

- Protecting delivery of important digital documents

- Secure delivery of encryption keys

"Remote delivery of products like music and video is happening, it's in the here and now - but it can't take off successfully without something like VirtualTokens," says Richard Phillimore, executive vice president for smart card businesses at PubliCARD. "Security is one area where the application of smart card technology is in growing demand across a wide range of markets. With VirtualTokens, PubliCARD is there first with a superior smart card technology that leads the market for protection against the growing problem of software piracy worldwide."

Since 1989, the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program has highlighted men and women whose visionary use of information technology produces positive social, economic and educational change. Chairs of leading information technology companies choose the winners, whose technology is then displayed in The Smithsonian Institute Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology.

About PubliCARD, Inc.

Headquartered at Fairfield, CT, PubliCARD develops and deploys smart card systems and technology. With a presence in the U.S. and international smart card markets, PubliCARD specializes in many areas of smart card technology, including chip card manufacturing, smart card readers, electronic commerce security software, components for applications in cable and broadcast access, unattended point-of-sale equipment, chipsets, web filtering systems, a complete range of PCMCIA and digital photography products and more. You can find more information at www.publicard.com.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the applicable statements. For more information on the potential factors, which could affect the company's financial results, refer to the Company's most recent SEC reports, including the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998.

Editor's note: You can find more information about VirtualTokens at a PubliCARD news conference at CardTech/SecurTech '99 at McCormick Place South in Chicago. The news conference will be held on Wednesday, May 12th at 1:00 p.m.