PrivyLink specialises in the development of end-to-end authentication and security solutions which provide protection for applications and data exchanged over fixed networks and mobile channels. Its solutions are geared to meet the demand for high-assurance delivery channels in secure electronic transactions and homeland security systems and have been deployed in Government departments, financial institutes and corporations. The latest addition to the company’s suite of products, RidgeVault, was unveiled at the recent Gitex 2007 show in Dubai.

Privylink integrates advanced biometrics and cryptography technology in its latest security solution.

According to PrivyLink, RidgeVault minimises business liability and fraud-related financial loss by preventing denials, disputes and unauthorised intrusions. Its patent-pending technology makes use of fingerprint characteristics among other self-generated secret codes to protect sensitive information during the enrolment process. The products of the enrolment process are known as “biometric vaults.”

Examples of confidential or sensitive data include a private crypto key for signing a document or an identity code uniquely assigned to an individual.

“RidgeVault involves complex numerical operations and it is computationally impossible to derive from the generated biometric vaults any information related to the original fingerprint patterns and the guarded information,” said Dr Billy Au, business development consultant with PrivyLink.

“Only the genuine fingerprint can cause RidgeVault to regenerate the corresponding protected information in the query process. Any illegitimate fingerprints can easily be detected and the protected information embedded in the corresponding biometric vaults would never be revealed,” he added.

Conventional fingerprint verification solutions compare fingerprint images or their characteristics against stored genuine references. In contrast, RidgeVault does not store any biometric images or features, thus ensuring that users’ privacy is protected.

“This product feature is critical to the successful deployment of many biometric enabled applications, as fingerprints and other biometric parameters are not revocable and they cannot be used any more once their safekeeping has been compromised,” explained Dr Au.

PrivyLink is currently shipping the first batch of RidgeVault solutions to a customer for an e-Government workflow management application. It is also working to integrate RidgeVault in border control, banking and other applications requiring strong user authentication and accountability capabilities, said Dr Au.

Singapore-based Cherry Credits (www.cherrycredits.com) has launched a secure micro-payments engine that gives content providers and intellectual property owners a new channel to tap on the lucrative teenage and young adult market previously unavailable or resistant to service-for-a-fee offerings.

The bulk of online transactions are currently based on credit-card processing systems, missing out on segments of the youth market which do not qualify for credit card use. This problem is exacerbated by pre-set minimum transaction amounts for payments to be processed by credit card. With Cherry Credits’ patent-pending New Economy eXchange Technology (NEXT), consumers will be able to transfer and transact very small amounts of money. It will eliminate the problem of credit card “chargeback,” which occurs when parents, who discover that their credit cards are being used without their knowledge, promptly cancel the transactions.

According to Cherry Credits, NEXT is easily integrated with new or existing payment systems of content providers, for example, those who own or operate online games, social networks, blog content or music and video clips.

"NEXT's integrated online and physical processing-distribution model provides content providers with unparalleled flexibilities in distribution and payment collection," said Mr Addison Kang, Chief Executive Officer of Cherry Credits. “The technology is flexible enough to allow dynamic pricing that changes country by country based on Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), and even allows fluctuation by time, based on the content provider’s in-game stock market, for example, like that of online community portal, Second Life.”

Content providers do not need to change their community’s economic model, and can easily offer Cherry Credits as a payment channel alongside the more traditional credit card systems.

NEXT is supported by both virtual and physical distribution channels in Singapore and around the region, including in-store distribution points at popular consumer outlets such as 7-Eleven. Non-credit card consumers such as teenagers buy "scratch cards" of Cherry Credits at such outlets, and can then use them to pay for items or the in-game currencies of popular online multiplayer gaming titles and virtual communities such as Habbo Hotel, a virtual social community from Sulake Corporation, and Lineage II, a fantasy Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game from NCSoft.