Interest Grows in BIO-key's Multifactor Biometric Election Security Capabilities as Additional Florida Counties Adopt the Solution

WALL, N.J., Sept. 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. BKYI, an innovative provider of biometric authentication and security solutions, today announced two additional County Election Boards in Florida have selected BIO-key solutions to enhance the security of their identification and authentication process for staff members and volunteers involved in managing the voting process. The Election Boards are acting to enhance security for the upcoming 2019 regional elections and the 2020 presidential election.

Florida is a leader in addressing election cybersecurity issues head on by implementing BIO-key's strong biometric authentication solution. Brevard and Collier County were first onboard with BIO-key in October last year, and now additional Florida counties are following suit as BIO-key begins to receive election security inquiries from across the nation.

BIO-key's election security solution is built around its ID Director for Windows software, which integrates with Microsoft's Active Directory and manages access to networked resources. The combined solution delivers strong biometric multi-factor authentication across an entire organization. ID Director for Windows is compatible with a variety of complex fingerprint readers qualified by Microsoft to support the biometric sign-in platform included in Windows 10. Some Election Boards have chosen to use BIO-key's PIV-Pro, a FIPS compliant fingerprint scanner, ideal for highly regulated industries, as well as its EcoID fingerprint scanner.

The deployments are being supported by increasing U.S. Government funding available for election security initiatives. Last March, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 created the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Election Security Fund, providing $380 million of Federal funding to improve states' administration of Federal elections. More recently, the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations Bill was amended by the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide $250M in additional funding for county and state election boards to upgrade technology, improve cybersecurity and help prevent future cyberattacks.

"BIO-key has a long-standing track record of providing strong biometric security solutions for government clients," stated Mike DePasquale, Chairman & CEO, BIO-key. "Our technology has consistently met or exceeded the needs and expectations of customers in global law enforcement, the U.S. Federal government and foreign national government agencies. We are extremely proud to be extending our work to securing state and Federal election data and anticipate further growth in this area. It is vital for the country to maintain the integrity of our election process, which has become increasingly reliant on computers and the Internet, despite the inherent cyber risks."

About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.bio-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication with biometric solutions that enable convenient and secure access to information and high-stakes transactions. We offer alternatives to passwords, PINs, tokens, and cards to make it easy for enterprises and consumers to secure their devices as well as information in the cloud. Our premium finger scanning devices offer market-leading quality, performance and price. BIO-key also brings the power and ease of use of biometric technology to its TouchLock line of biometric and Bluetooth enabled padlocks – providing even more ways to BIO-key your world!

BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "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 not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our ability to develop new products and evolve existing ones, customer and market acceptance of biometric solutions generally and our specific offerings, our ability to expand sales within existing customer relationships, our ability to raise additional capital, and 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, 2018 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 undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date made.

Investor & Media Contacts
William Jones, Tanya Kamatu
Catalyst Global
212-924-9800
bkyi@catalyst-ir.com