Cybersecurity breaches have become an increasingly regular and unfortunate business reality. Most recently, T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) suffered a cybersecurity incident affecting over 40 million current, former and prospective customers, due in part to compromised credentials on its secure access points.  The data stolen from T-Mobile includes names, Social Security Numbers, phone numbers and date of birth.  This treasure trove is all that a would-be hacker needs to compromise the phones of those customers, whether by SIM swapping or social engineering attacks.  This matters because hackers are also targeting small and medium businesses and government agencies, with phishing, SIM swapping and business email compromise (BEC) on a frequent basis. No business operates without these threats to their business looming as they secure access for an increasingly connected, work-from-anywhere workforce.

The need for next-generation cybersecurity and enhanced digital protection has never been greater, highlighting companies like BIO-key International Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI). BIO-key is a trusted provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric solutions that is changing mainstream multi-factor authentication (MFA) within IAM by offering an easier and more secure way to authenticate the identity of employees, customers, and suppliers while managing their access across devices and applications, for enterprises, educational institutions and consumers. 

BIO-key PortalGuard® IDaaS is BIO-key’s award-winning platform that provides the simplicity and flexibility required to secure the modern digital experience with options for single sign-on, self-service password reset, and over 16 multi-factor authentication methods. What makes BIO-key different is that it is the only IAM platform to offer integrated Identity-Bound Biometrics - biometric identity assurance which goes beyond TouchID, FaceID and Windows Hello to allow true positive authentication without any device required.  BIO-key Identity Bound Biometrics eliminates the need for passwords, does not require a per-user phone or token, and prevents phishing, delegation, account takeovers and handovers and account sharing.  

BIO-key’s innovations are rooted in over 25 years of research and expertise in simplifying how people prove who they are online, enabling it to deliver more secure, convenient and cost-effective cybersecurity services that end-users actually prefer over mainstream sign in methods.   BIO-key solutions are utilized by Fortune 500 companies and other enterprises in financial services, healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, communication, transportation and government sectors, protecting over 15 million active users’ identities worldwide.

After building a strong reputation as a boutique fingerprint biometric solution provider, BIO-key pivoted to become a full IAM solution vendor in 2020, acquiring the company producing PortalGuard®, a leading Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform.  This acquisition has provided significant growth potential for BIO-key and is in line with its long-term growth strategy of building an expanded array of IAM solutions, always leveraging the higher ceiling of Identity Bound Biometrics. The company is focused on enhancing the diverse range of its product offerings and ensuring each solution offers the most innovative features. 

BIO-key’s PortalGuard IDaaS platform offers flexible options for Single-Sign-on (SSO), and currently supports over 16 multi-factor authentication methods, including Identity-Bound Biometrics, FIDO tokens, phone apps such as Duo, Microsoft and Google Authenticator, smartcards, OTP, and knowledge-based questions.  With so many flexible choices, customers can start with what they already use, and then electively add the power and convenience of Identity-Bound Biometrics to ensure the highest levels of integrity, security, availability, and accuracy that enterprise security requires. Identity-Bound Biometrics are the only authentication factors that bind a user’s biometric to the person’s digital identity, to truly confirm the identity of the person behind a transaction or data or application access, not just what they have or know.

BIO-key has a long track record with fingerprint authentication, and the recent release of BIO-key’s MobileAuth app with PalmPositive eliminate the inconvenience, security risks, and costs of traditional authentication methods by offering a different way to authenticate - using a user’s phone camera to scan their palm to confirm identity.  MobileAuth can be used for multi-factor authentication or passwordless workflows that make it easy to sign in even without a password. 

You can keep up to date with BIO-key’s most recent developments and insights into cybersecurity on the company’s blog and latest press releases. Investors can also view financial information, the latest news and quarterly reports here. 

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