Security: Wisekey, HP and Microsoft Authenticate Electronic Identity
Geneva (ots)
From Identity Cards to e-Government Services, This Flexible Solution Fulfils Government Needs for Security
Note: The complete Agefi article can be downloaded in French and English at: http://www.presseportal.ch/fr/story.htx?firmaid=100006027
Security, terrorism, biometrics. To say the least, these concerns were at the heart of intense activity during the last few days. Early in the week, Brussels was receiving the first post-election visit of the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, who encouraged Europeans to tune their security controls to US methods, to improve the effectiveness of the fight against terrorism. On Friday, at the Hewlett Packard (HP) Innovation Center in Geneva, the international press was invited to a conference that announced the creation of a new National Identification System (NIS) developed jointly by HP, Microsoft and most importantly, Geneva start-up Wisekey.
Even if these events were not truly linked, the fact remains that identity management remains one of the greatest challenges for government. According to a study carried out by the US based company, Morgan Keegan, this market represents approximately US$4.8 billion dollars globally and should reach US$10.7 billion by 2007. In Europe, more than 120 billion Euros have already been invested in the public sector in this area (government, police, Lisbon agenda, etc.); the budget devoted to security has doubled to 70 billion Euros; and 8 billion Euros have been directed to border protection, stated Pascal Detemmerman, HP Vice President of Public Sector, on Friday. "Today's need for secure identification of individuals on national and international levels is such that only an alliance between various partners can guarantee the development of optimal solutions and their success," added Gilles Polin, director of EMEA e-Government solutions Microsoft.
Contact:
Source L'Agefi:
Sylvie Gardel
http://www.agefi.com
E-Mail: s.gardel@agefi.com
Daniel Ybarra
E-Mail: daniel@wisekey.ch
Tel. +41-22-929-57-57
http://www.wisekey.ch