Brad and all,
quest4ubiquity delivered up some good words...
biz.yahoo.com
Friday January 12, 5:55 pm Eastern Time
TECH WORLD: Identix Looks at the Real You
By Shelley Souza
Optionetics.com
Biometrics is the rage these days and Identix (IDX) is ramping up to serious visibility with an "invisible" technology based on the mysterious factor of unique characteristics: face, finger, iris, retina, voice, bio-rhythm. One reason for the company's relative obscurity (to traders at any rate) might be the fact that their stock trades on the AMEX rather than the Nasdaq. For options traders this might be good news; my experience at times has been better and faster fills through the AMEX than other market makers.
Identix designs, develops, manufactures and markets comprehensive biometric technology based on user authentication, security and identification solutions for security, fraud prevention, law enforcement and other applications. I spoke with Grant Evans, their Executive Vice President, as he was speeding toward the airport (the wonders of modern wireless technology!).
Identix was founded in 1982, and became a public company in 1985. Their systems are in use in commercial, industrial, and government sectors around the globe. Their recent announcement of a partnership with VeriSign (VRSN) and today with Motorola (MOT) to supply proprietary biometric solutions will come through iTrust, a division Identix launched in July of last year to specifically address security over the Internet and wireless platforms. Currently their solutions are portable to Microsoft (MSFT) and Novell Inc (NOVL); the company anticipates supporting Unix and Netscape's Apache within 12-14 months.
In terms of security, Identix sees three points of weakness:
1) Enrollment where falsification can take place;
2) Point of transaction;
3) During the session-attacking the server.
Working backwards (as Mr. Evans did), during the session, one way to prevent extensive damage from intrusion is to distribute the credentials over a number of channels so that the intruder might get one piece of data but not the whole. At the point of transaction, even if an intruder manages to break the encrypted data, the data flow can only be attacked one time per session because the encryption key attached to the data is good for one session only.
It is up to the administrator to validate a new account for enrollment. Across the Internet where the Administrator cannot see the subscriber requesting permission to enroll, authentic validation is critical. Identix has developed software to block attempts at using false face and finger identity. And they address security through multi-factor authentication. These validations include legal identifiers such as name, address, date of birth, etc.; public key infrastructure [PKI]; and certificate of authorities [CA]. The biggest point of weakness is at the PKI level, where companies usually issue the CA once, at the beginning, and then "assume" the user who continues to subscribe is the same person to whom the certificate was issued. The authorizing company, whether it is VeriSign, Entrust Technologies (ENTU) or even a corporation using these companies' security technology in-house, doesn't usually know if the certificate being presented is stolen. In the case of commercial security companies selling security products, liability is passed to the customer.
Because there is no such thing as infallible security, Identix is rolling out new products (upgraded with new architecture) about every 8 months. But even with their seemingly stringent solutions, Mr. Evans told me, cyberland is still murky real estate. Their way of tackling the problem of security over the Internet is to build vertical markets with companies like E*Trade (EGRP) and Charles Schwab (SCH) and let them handle issues of validation.
I had a list of technical questions that I'm still very curious about-such as work on iris biometrics and whether they're working on getting the scanner down to the thickness of a current credit card (1/32"). That would be something completely amazing! To my knowledge, we have yet to succeed in reducing a finger biometrics scanner to this thickness. I also didn't have a chance to ask Mr. Evans what the advantage of storing the token in the EEPROM (Erasable Electrically Programmed Read Only Memory) will be to companies like Motorola.
The stock has been trading up over the last few sessions on increasing volume. The Platinum site at Optionetics.com will help you figure the best trade in terms of risk-to-reward for optionable Identix trades. If nothing else, this is a stock you should keep on your radar because, one of these days, Identix technology will be looking right back at ya, and without mud in their eye!
As always, trade well!
Shelley Souza
Senior Writer & Trading Strategist
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site
ssouza@optionetics.com
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