Provides Significant Cost of Ownership Reduction

BILLERICA, Mass.–Viisage, a leading provider of advanced technology identity solutions, unveiled at Cartes its new ID-Guard, an image scanner that automatically authenticates identity documents such as drivers’ licenses and ID cards. The innovative ID-Guard product takes seconds to determine the authenticity of an identity document and helps reduce identity fraud in the banking, law enforcement and driver’s license markets. Its small size and low total cost of ownership also make it ideal for service-counter and in-vehicle mobile environments.

“Viisage is the only company offering a cost-effective document authenticator and this new solution further extends our lead in the identity solutions market,” commented Bernard Bailey, President and CEO of Viisage. “In addition to saving time and money with ID Guard, our customers also can quickly authenticate identity documents – essential requirements in addressing growing concerns over possible identity theft and fraud.”

Identity fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, costing the business community over $1 billion in losses according to a study by Gartner Group. With identity fraud cases on the rise, ID-Guard is a timely solution for markets dealing with criminals using fake drivers’ licenses as tools to open fraudulent accounts or gain access to privileged information. ID-Guard is not only a new tool for investigators, but we also believe it will be a powerful deterrent to identity fraud. In addition, the low cost of ownership model ensures that distribution throughout an organization is an affordable endeavor.

“Viisage’s ID-Guard product is unmatched in its capabilities to perform full document authentication and is a much needed tool for law enforcement, motor vehicle agencies and financial institutions in their fight against identity fraud,” said Jim Ebzery, Senior Vice President of Customer Solutions at Viisage. “This product will greatly assist our ability to help all organizations successfully thwart the identity theft concerns that they are faced with today.”

The USA PATRIOT Act and the REAL ID Act both require organizations to now focus on the people to whom they are issuing secure identity credentials and whom they are authorizing to access privileges such as new bank accounts. ID-Guard meets the critical needs of these organizations to assess the authenticity of identity documents and record their efforts to check these documents.

ID-Guard is the newest development within the broad range of Viisage products that utilize a variety of end-to-end identity solutions including biometrics, secure credential issuance and identity information software, based on the layered applications approach to identity solutions. This solution builds on Viisage’s proven track record of success for document authentication product lines that have an installed base of thousands of units that are helping to secure border crossings around the world. ID Guard enables:

– Automated data capture and authentication of CR80/ID1 size documents through images, demographic information and searching for hidden security features.

– Detailed images - designed using several light sources - to perform multiple security checks which have been predefined for each ID document.

– Use of an image scanner, focusing on widely used ID1/CR80 sized documents, to create a unit that is a fraction of the size and weight of previous offerings.

– Verification of the machine readable zone (MRZ) for ICAO ID1 size documents, by using the built-in bar-code and magnetic stripe reading capability, with B900 ink presence confirmation and user applications population with information captured from the document.

ID-Guard also is available with optical character recognition (OCR) functionality, enabling the capture and comparison of printed text to machine readable information.

About Viisage Viisage delivers advanced technology identity solutions for governments, law enforcement agencies and businesses concerned with enhancing security, reducing identity theft, and protecting personal privacy. Viisage solutions include secure credentials such as passports and drivers’ licenses, biometric technologies for uniquely linking individuals to those credentials, and credential authentication technologies to ensure the documents are valid before individuals are allowed to cross borders, gain access to finances, or granted other privileges. With over 3,000 installations worldwide, Viisage’s identity solutions stand out as a result of the Company’s industry-leading technology and unique understanding of customer needs.