WALL, NJ--(Marketwire - Aug 2, 2012) - BIO-key International, Inc. (OTCBB: [ BKYI ]), a global leader in fingerprint biometric identification solutions and advanced mobile identification technology, today reported that the company has been granted its tenth U.S. Patent 8,214,652 "Biometric Identification Network Security," further enhancing its portfolio of intellectual property for advanced authentication using fingerprint biometric technology.

The patent protects BIO-key's proprietary technology for secure communication and management of a biometric enrollment or authentication payload transported between a client system -- consisting of any device, such as PCs, laptops, tablets, or smart phones -- and remote servers in a public or private cloud network. It leverages widely deployed Trusted Computing chipsets that provide encryption and secure device identity in many devices and is already used for Digital Rights Management (DRM). The new patent leverages these chipsets for encryption and session management for stronger security in trusted communications between client and server.

"This patent leverages hardware-based encryption for strong session management to protect biometric data from hacking, replays, man-in-the-middle-attacks and redirection. BIO-key's WEB-key platform security is designed with the assumption that imposter's posses perfect digital copies of a valid user's fingerprint; our uses of these strong encryption technologies ensure that the imposter cannot insert that print into a trusted BIO-key communication. Incorporation of hardware-based encryption raises the bar on security to a new level. Our vision is for a secure authentication and identification capability to be available in the cloud, and accessible from any device, from PC to smartphone," stated Mira LaCous, CTO and VP Technology and Development BIO-key International, Inc. "As one of the industry's pioneers, BIO-key has been focused on developing universal access biometric identification and authentication solutions for nearly two decades."

The latest patent is an enhancement of one previously issued to BIO-key -- U.S. Patent 7,117,356 "Systems and Methods for Secure Biometric Authentication," which covers the use of PKI key pairs for authentication of a session instead of as a user token. 

"BIO-key has emerged as the global leader in developing interoperable fingerprint biometric technology; enabling our customers to achieve the highest levels of security and convenience, which is a rare combination," said Mike DePasquale, BIO-key CEO. "Our technology operates on a myriad of devices, platforms and fingerprint readers, allowing them to integrate as one seamless biometric ecosystem. With recent industry events, the future of fingerprint technology is making a quantum leap forward. Mobility will drive consumer adoption, generating an essential requirement for authentication interoperability among devices that users use to access applications and data."

About BIO-key
BIO-key International, Inc., headquartered in Wall, New Jersey, develops and delivers advanced identification solutions to commercial and government enterprises, integrators, and custom application developers. BIO-key's award winning, high performance, scalable, cost-effective and easy-to-deploy biometric finger identification technology accurately identifies and authenticates users of wireless and enterprise applications. Our solutions are used in local embedded OEM products as well as some of the world's largest identification deployments to improve security, guarantee identity, and help reduce identity theft. BIO-key's technology is offered directly or by market leading partners around the world. ([ http://www.bio-key.com ])

BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release may be construed as "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected on the basis of these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue, our ability to develop new products and evolve existing ones, the impact on our business of the recent financial crisis in the global capital markets and negative global economic trends, our ability to attract and retain key personnel. For a more complete description of these and other risk factors that may affect the future performance of BIO-key International, Inc., see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company also undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.