Biometric Authentication and HDD Encryption Solution for SMBs

UPEK, in enterprise and consumer biometric fingerprint solutions, and WinMagic, Inc., in disk encryption, announced their Biometric Authentication + Full-Disk Encryption Solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs). The combination of the Eikon Fingerprint Reader and SecureDoc Express Disk Encryption makes protection of data via user authentication and data encryption simple to deploy and easy to use for small and medium businesses. The solution was demoed at the RSA Conference 2009.

SMBs face significant risks and penalties when laptops or portable storage media, containing valuable data assets or personal identifiable information (PII), go missing. However, SMBs typically lack sufficient IT resources and policies to protect data relative to larger enterprises. Many data encryption solutions are burdensome to end users and are too complex for SMBs since they are often designed for larger business customers. The Biometric Authentication + Hard Disk Encryption Solution offers SMBs an easy-to-deploy solution that mitigates the risk of damaging data breaches and helps ensure compliance with regulatory standards, and at the same time makes the end user experience virtually seamless.

WinMagic’s SecureDoc Express Disk Encryption allows SMBs to centrally deploy, enforce and manage government-grade AES encryption so that data is automatically encrypted ‘on the fly’ without user intervention. Central reporting and audit trails enable SMBs to demonstrate compliance with regulatory standards. By allowing end users to simply swipe their finger to authenticate, UPEK’s award-winning Eikon fingerprint reader strengthens traditional password-based user authentication and lowers IT support desk costs associated with password resets.

“It’s simply amazing, since WinMagic enabled SecureDoc to accept pre-boot authentication with UPEK’s biometric solutions, I rarely have to use a password to either authenticate to my notebook or logon to the computer system,” said Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO and President of WinMagic Inc. “UPEK’s capabilities have greatly assisted WinMagic in dramatically enhancing a positive customer experience when utilizing SecureDoc full-disk encryption,” Nguyen-Huu continued. “Making the encryption of all data, including PII, transparent to the user was a main driver when WinMagic decided to configure a bundled offering to the SMB market.”