SONY INTRODUCES NEW FINGERPRINT IDENTITY PACKAGES FOR WINDOWS, MACINTOSH USERS
Replacing Clumsy Passwords With Convenient "Puppy" Device
PARK RIDGE, N.J., June 16, 2003 - Consumers and small business owners can now access personal and company information with just the touch of a finger.
Sony's FIU-600 Puppy ® fingerprint identity device now comes packaged with Puppy Suite ™ authentication software for Microsoft ® Windows ® or Mac OS X operating systems. The packages provide easy-to-use solutions for securing access to desktops, web sites and other critical applications, replacing the need to use passwords in the home or a small office environment.
"Consumers and small business owners no longer have to remember lengthy passwords or personal identification numbers," said Tom Evans, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' media and application solutions division. "With the simple touch of a fingertip, they can have instant, hassle-free access to their world of information."
The FIU-600 unit connects via a USB port and authenticates users based on a quality unique to each person - their fingertip. Its capacitance sensing technology electronically reads a fingerprint; it cannot be fooled by paper copies and does not require cleaning.
According to Evans, fingerprint technology is inherently more reliable and secure than using a patchwork of passwords and PIN numbers. He said those methods can be easily forgotten or identified through unauthorized means because they are based on readily available personal information, such as birthdays and pet names.
Evans said the unit's ease-of-use and convenience factors will appeal to consumers who are increasingly overwhelmed by the number of passwords required to secure their personal information.
"Once consumers see how easy it is to set up and use, they may never return to passwords and PIN numbers," Evans said.
Enterprise-wide Applications
Though chiefly aimed at the consumer and small business owner, the FIU-600 offers significant benefits for larger work environments. Fingerprint templates can be stored and matched on-board or, alternatively, linked to a central database for enterprise-wide employee identification solutions.
Exporting high-quality, encrypted fingerprint images or templates to a centralized database gives workers the ability to be mobile in their environments yet still have fingerprint-based access to protected data.
Growing Portfolio of Biometric Products
The FIU-600 unit is part of Sony's growing portfolio of fingerprint identity products for applications that extend from the home to a large enterprise. Another model, the FIU-710, is ideal for large-scale enterprises for securing applications and other corporate information.
The FIU600/W with Puppy Suite authentication software for Windows operating systems requires a USB-equipped computer with a 300MHz Pentium ® processor; 128MB of RAM; 20 MB of available hard disk space; Microsoft ® Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, and Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 Professional Service Pack 2, Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro operating systems.
The FIU600/M with Puppy Suite authentication software for Mac OS X system works with USB-equipped iMac ®, iBook ®, PowerBook ® or Power Mac ® computers capable of running the Mac OS X v10.2 operating system, with 128MB of RAM and 5 MB of available hard disk space. The FIU600/M package is the first fingerprint identity solution to work with the recently introduced Mac OS X v10.2 operating system.
The FIU600/W and FIU600/M packages are now available direct through major resellers and distributors and through sonystyle.com for suggested retail prices of $139.99 and $159.99, respectively.
Editor's Note: For more detailed product information, readers can visit www.sony.com/professional or www.sonystyle.com/puppy.
