EyeLock Provides Portable Iris Security for Egyptian Data Centers

EyeLock will be providing secure iris-based access control for a quartet of government data center facilities in Egypt. The facilities are located in the country’s new administrative capital, and will handle all of the information that comes in from the city’s streets, service providers, and government buildings. The city itself is still under construction to the east of Cairo.

Thanks to the new partnership, the government will be using EyeLock’s Portable Template solution to protect that information once the city is up and running. Unlike other biometric access control solutions, Portable Template does not store any biometric information on a separate database, or even on a shared access control device. It instead lets the user store their iris template on a personal Bluetooth mobile device (such as a smartphone), or on an 8K DESFire EV/EV2 smart card that fulfills the same purpose.

To use it, people will first need to swipe that digital credential at a point of entry to transfer their template to the biometric reader. They will then need to submit to an iris recognition scan to make sure that the template corresponds to the person holding that device. The solution enables dual-factor authentication, since people need to have both a device and a matching biometric in order to gain access to a building.

The EyeLock reader will delete the iris template once the scan is complete. As a result, the template is only stored (with AES-256 encryption) on the personal device that stays with the owner. The solution eliminates many of the costs associated with a large-scale central database, while still providing coverage for a large and disparate population.

“Our Portable Template solution guarantees that a user’s personally identifiable information is protected and remains private,” said EyeLock International Business Development VP Marco Emrich. “For organizations that are facing regulatory and infrastructure challenges that prohibit or hinder the use of biometric databases, deploying our Portable Template solution will provide next-level security, with increased convenience and mobility.”

EyeLock augmented its nano iXT scanners with a new mask detection feature in November. The company is also targeting the Indian market through a recent distribution partnership with IrisScanners.

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April 22, 2021 – by Eric Weiss