BIO-Key Delivers Powerful New Capabilities for PortalGuard IDaaS

Enhanced Adaptive Authentication, SSO Support for Remote Access, and Authentication Analytics Continue to Expand Platform’s Flexibility and User Experience

WALL, N.J., Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of identity and access management (IAM) solutions powered by biometrics, today announced new capabilities for its PortalGuard IDaaS cloud-delivered authentication solution. These new features include enhanced adaptive authentication, Single Sign-On (SSO) support for secure remote work access, and authentication analytics to give administrators visibility into user access activities. All the new capabilities will be available for PortalGuard users by mid-February 2021.

Microsoft research on social engineering attacks, where cybercriminals rely on a person clicking a link or opening an attachment, reveals these attacks have escalated from 20,000 to 30,000 per day in the U.S. alone. These attacks have become even more complicated as employees continue to work from anywhere. To mitigate common threats while providing more convenient methods of authentication such as passwordless, biometric, and adaptive technologies, BIO-Key is introducing new innovations for PortalGuard IDaaS to better serve customers who are keen to have more options for securing their hybrid environments of cloud-based and on-premises applications, as well as multiple directory support, including Microsoft Azure.

To continue securing access to applications for customers in a way that is flexible, scalable, and affordable, BIO-Key is releasing six new capabilities for PortalGuard and its world-class biometric solution, WEB-Key:

• Adaptive Authentication for Improved, Continuous AuthenticationPortalGuard already leads the industry by supporting over fifteen authentication factors and contextual authentication. Now, with the introduction of PortalGuard Contextual Authentication v2.0, the customer user experience is improved through more fine-tuned risk-balancing controls, which analyze contextual or adaptive characteristics to strike the perfect balance between security and convenience. Customers gain the ability to automatically evaluate each login request, identify trends, and flag unexpected requests that require special handling based on IP addresses, geolocation, and prior browser usage as part of a comprehensive adaptive authentication process.

• SSO Jump Page for Easy Application OrganizationSome enterprises don’t have a full Cloud Management System portal in their environment, creating a need for a page that shows an accurate listing of all applications in which each user has SSO access. Updates to the SSO Jump Page will allow users to easily search through their applications by title or help text for quick discovery. The updated SSO Jump Page is available for PortalGuard customers at no additional cost with a simple set-up for both administrators and users.

• Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD) Integration to Support Working from AnywhereWith remote work continuing to be a mainstay amongst employees, users can often no longer connect to a Domain Controller to enforce centrally-controlled security policies. PortalGuard now provides added support for Microsoft’s Azure AD, which has been described as a secure, cloud-based directory for narrowing the functionality gap with on-premise AD deployments. The direct support for Azure AD allows BIO-Key to offer PortalGuard customers a full, enterprise-level, “cloud-only” experience, which also supports customers looking to move away from managing and hosting their own data centers. Azure AD will be supported as a “first-class” directory for real-time authentication in PortalGuard, and its Hybrid Domain joining functionality will also be supported for organizations that have federated Office365/Azure AD within PortalGuard.

• Passwordless Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Authentication as an Alternative to Password-Based LoginsPortalGuard already supports FIDO2 tokens, positioned by Microsoft and other industry leaders as a key to the elimination of password-based authentication. With this expansion, it now also includes the FIDO2 specification that supports a "passwordless" mode. The added passwordless FIDO2 specification provides another option that combines with customers’ preferred PortalGuard passwordless option, BIO-Key’s industry-leading biometric authentication.

• Dashboard and Analytics for Full Visibility into User InteractionsThis innovation builds on PortalGuard’s user activity data collection capabilities to run reports on user interactions at a chosen interval, in which the results are automatically received via email as a Scheduled Report. Administrators also have the ability to manually export report data from the PortalGuard Administrator Dashboard. They can access new reports such as user activity tracking to gain actionable insights for troubleshooting and diagnostic purposes.

• WEB-Key 4.0.931 Release for Improved Product ExperienceThe new WEB-Key release provides faster installation and quicker device lookup for fingerprint scanners of choice, delivering an even more streamlined experience for users leveraging BIO-key’s server-based biometric identity and authentication.

“Customers choose PortalGuard to secure their access points so they can focus on other pressing issues, which is why we’re constantly looking for ways to add value for enterprises that are facing a myriad of cybersecurity threats,” said Michael DePasquale, Chairman & CEO of BIO-key International. “The launch of our new PortalGuard and WEB-Key capabilities provides improved authentication and support for working from any location, which are critical issues for today’s institutions, especially in targeted segments such as education, government, financial, and healthcare.”

PortalGuard is a solution that leverages biometric security to blunt the growing threat of cyberattacks such as ransomware and phishing. It helps enterprises become secure “cloud-first” businesses while maintaining the highest security levels through unmatched integration flexibility and support for a wide variety of authentication factors.

For more information about PortalGuard IDaaS, visit the BIO-Key website.

About BIO-key International, Inc.BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication with biometric centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provide convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key’s proprietary software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premise and Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions as well as customized enterprise and cloud solutions.

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 history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; our ability to execute and deliver on contracts in Africa; our ability to expand into Asia, Africa and other foreign markets; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, 3 personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and 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. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.

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Media Contact:Erin KnappMatter CommunicationsBIO-Key@matternow.com914-260-3158