ACS launches AET62 NFC Reader with Fingerprint Sensor for use in authentication and identification

HONG KONG, 18 Oct, 2010 -Advanced Card Systems Ltd. (ACS, wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Card Systems Holdings Ltd., SEHK: 8210), Asia Pacific’s number one supplier of PC-linked smart card readers, today launches the new AET62 NFC Reader with Fingerprint Sensor, a combination that enables convenience and trust for contactless smart card applications.

ACS is the world’s first supplier of NFC (Near Field Communication) and Felica card reader with compliance to CCID standard, and is one of the world’s pioneering supplier of fingerprint scanner integrated with a contact smart card reader. With its dedicated R&D efforts to implement new technical solutions, ACS successfully added AET62 to its product portfolio.

NFC is a type of contactless technology that has increasingly gained popularity in recent years. In Asia alone, the contactless card market is predicted to find widespread acceptance by 2012, with NFC-based e-Passport and mass transit projects being the key drivers propelling its unprecedented growth (Frost & Sullivan, August 2010). Capitalizing on this trend, ACS developed AET62 to provide a whole new level of security using fingerprint identification and verification in contactless applications.

AET62 is designed by adopting the ACS ACR122U NFC reader core and incorporating the swipe fingerprint sensor. With these components, AET62 employs multi-factor authentication that requires a user to present something he knows (PIN or password), something he has (contactless card) and something he is (e.g. inherited, attributes, fingerprint). Either 2 or 3 factors need to be verified before allowing the user to proceed further, thus making it difficult for unauthorized individuals to bypass security and on the other hand helping with the combat of identity theft. Likewise, the match-on-device authentication is employed to verify the fingerprint template within the device itself, avoiding its exposure to PC’s that are vulnerable to security attacks.

“With AET62, fingerprint authentication can easily be integrated to increase the security of contactless applications,” explained Mr. Gilbert Leung, ACS Sales Director. “It allows developers and system integrators to use biometrics even without an in-depth knowledge of the technology and without the need for a costly and complex setup of a full scale biometric authentication scheme.”

As a contactless reader, AET62 supports ISO 14443 Types A and B, MiFare and FeliCa cards, all four types of NFC tags, and all three modes of NFC (reader, card emulation, and peer-to-peer). Meanwhile, it can also support third-party fingerprint algorithms. The device comes with Application Programming Interface manuals and reference documents to facilitate its integration into new and existing systems.

About ACS

Advanced Card Systems Ltd. (ACS, wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Card Systems Holdings Ltd., SEHK: 8210), founded in 1995, is Asia Pacific’s number one supplier of PC-linked smart card readers and winner of Product Quality Leadership Award for Smart Card Readers from Frost & Sullivan. One of a select group of global companies at the forefront of the smart card revolution, ACS develops a wide range of high quality smart card reading/writing devices, smart cards and related products and distributes them to over 100 countries worldwide. Visit ACS at http://www.acs.com.hk.