Verity Technologies launches SLIM

BANGALORE, INDIA: Verity Technlogies, a mobile services company in the domain of authentication and identity services, has recently launched SLIM (StartLok Identity Module), a biometric authentication device.

Speaking on the launch, Anuradha Bansal, CEO, Verity Technologies, said: “This initiative has come at a time when the Indian ICT sector is witnessing far-reaching changes. The product has been developed after four years of research and development, in the UK and India by a 32-member team, with an investment of over 2 million pounds. We are targeting $100 million revenue in the first year.”

Shiv Kumar, CTO, Verity Technologies, added, “We are in talks with government/quasi government/defence/microfinance/credit card/e-com/ m-com players/RFID smart card manufacturers/ and large enterprises, which have shown interest on SLIM."

Phil Steeples, director of technology, Verity Technologies, said: “The one-touch, secure authentication-enabled through embedded fingerprint reader, light-touch concept, user being central to the technology; anonymity, ubiquitous, portability, usability, sheer ease of implementation and accommodation of ‘blue sky’ parameters, set SLIM apart from other similar devises.”

How SLIM works
SLIM, a Bluetooth equipped device, works on a one-to-one basis with any bluetooth enabled mobile phone. To make it work with the phone during the enrolment process, StartLok, the Bluetooth authenticator, sends a text containing a small piece of client software to the user.

Activation of the software and the SLIM occurs while enrolling and the handset only requires minimal user input. The SLIM establishes a secure connection to the mobile phone and the mobile phone establishes a secure communication to the StartLok Authentication Centre (SLAC) via SMS, GPRS or 3G.

When a transaction request occurs, the SLAC checks mobile, SIM card, the SLIM and finally a biometric. Thus, the end user can only be the registered user.

The SLAC can handle multiple authentication requests from different sources, such as banks and merchants. The SLAC operates in an anonymous fashion by only accepting pseudonyms from the originating source that requires the authentication, thus ensuring full anonymous data integrity.

For those sources that cannot comply with this requirement, a conversion server is under development, this server will deal with varying interface and anonymous requirements which are necessary to support legacy technologies that still exist within the originating sources’ (i.e., payments service providers, merchants, government departments etc.) operating environments.

One-touch security device
"The technology was initially developed to deter casual theft of mobile handsets but subsequently upgraded to be the de-facto device for mobile personal authentication," Steeples added.

Each SLIM is unique, which means that if a SLIM is copied or cloned it cannot be used as the SLAC will not countenance a SLIM being used twice. Each SLIM also contains an embedded fingerprint reader, which is a state-of-the-art device for capturing fingerprint characteristics.

SLIM also addresses the security concerns of e-commerce, Web 2.0, Telco 2.0 and NFC mass-market adoption. It also ensures secure, point of sale (PoS) transactions, and its unique authentication helps to ease the way passport, driving license and other identity cards are issued and managed. On the mobility front, it helps in making security payments over mobile phone and locks down handsets to deter theft and safeguards sensitive data.