UPEK Products Selected as SC Award Finalist for Best Biometric Device

Business Wire, Dec 7, 2005

BERKELEY, Calif. -- UPEK, Inc., the leader in biometric fingerprint security solutions, today announced that its TouchChip(R) and TouchStrip(TM) Fingerprint Authentication Solutions have been selected as an SC Award Finalist for Best Biometric Device. The SC Awards, sponsored by Secure Computing magazine, is the world's leading awards program for the information security industry, and identified UPEK products from a pool of over 1,300 product and service nominations from over 330 competing companies on a worldwide basis.

UPEK's TouchChip and TouchStrip fingerprint authentication solutions have brought innovation to the IT security industry by offering a convenient and secure way to authenticate individuals in an end-to-end solution that is easy to integrate into customer products, including notebook PCs from Lenovo/IBM, USB flash drives from SanDisk, and portable hard drives from LaCie. UPEK products enable a wide range of applications including password replacement for PCs, secure mobile transactions, and protection of portable data.

"We are honored to have been selected as an SC Award Finalist," stated Greg Goelz, Vice President of Marketing at UPEK. "Secure Computing Magazine is widely recognized as a leading publication covering the IT security industry, and this recognition supports what our customers are telling us -- that our biometric authentication solutions are truly solving the market need for authentication that's both secure and easy to use."

As consumers and mobile employees carry and access more and more sensitive data, the need to authenticate them beyond using a password is becoming more critical. A recent survey conducted by UPEK, Inc. found that 72% of respondents use the same password for all logins and 40% shared their passwords with others. This type of usage of passwords highlights the need for a more user-friendly method of authenticating individuals to protect access to data and networks.

About UPEK

UPEK, Inc., the global leader in biometric fingerprint security solutions, offers integrated end-to-end solutions including comprehensive design and integration services to the world's leading consumer and industrial products companies. UPEK solutions enable the strongest fingerprint authentication security available, packaged for high user convenience and rapid integration into existing products and network architectures.

UPEK biometric security products enable a wide range of applications including password replacement for PCs and applications, centralized management for corporate network security, secure mobile transactions, protection of portable data, identity verification for government and military applications, and physical access control.

UPEK has been pioneering biometric fingerprint technology since 1996 and shipping product in volume since 1999. UPEK is headquartered near Berkeley, California with offices in Prague, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo. www.upek.com.

About SC Awards 2006

With over 1,300 product and service nominations from over 330 competing companies globally, the SC Awards are the world's leading awards program for the information security industry. The SC Awards program spans US, Asia, and UK. The SC Awards are composed of both the Reader Trust Technology Awards -- voted on by SC readers in each region and the SC Awards Council, a group of carefully selected senior CSOs -- and the Professional Awards that are judged by a panel of the industry's top talents.

Recognizing technical excellence and professional achievement across a variety of different categories, the SC Awards is a truly unique program developed to bring attention to the industry's top products and highlight the professionals that have both created them and use them within their companies. These industry achievements are acknowledged during the exciting US Awards ceremony taking place this year at the Fairmont, San Jose on February 14th, 2006. For more information contact Liz Lockard at Liz.Lockard@haymarketmedia.com. www.scmagazine.com