Texas City Joins Growing List of Municipalities Securing Access to Sensitive Data with BIO-key’s PortalGuard Identity and Access Management Platform

DALLAS and WALL, N.J., April 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB), today announced that a Texas city has selected its PortalGuard IAM platform, with support for a broad array of multi-factor authentication (MFA) options, to protect its enterprise applications and data. Leveraging the PortalGuard IAM platform, the municipality can strengthen its overall security posture and effectively respond to evolving cyber threats. This new customer relationship, BIO-key�s first with a Texas municipality, was secured by Dallas-based IT consulting firm Mejeticks through BIO-key’s master agent Intelisys.

Cyber-attacks against municipalities have increased significantly in the last year, not only for monetary profit but also to disrupt critical infrastructure, with school districts, city halls, and police departments among the most vulnerable. Today, the biggest cyber threat faced by municipalities is ransomware that denies access to their files, computers, or various secure data until an often-egregious ransom is paid. In 2022, municipalities have become the focal point of state-sponsored hackers and cybercriminals seeking big payoffs and even more significant media coverage to support their malicious enterprises. Municipalities require robust, proven IAM solutions that can adapt to various secure access requirements successfully and cost-effectively.

BIO-key’s security team developed the PortalGuard IAM platform to provide cost-effective IAM security capabilities and benefits to its customers. This Texas-based municipality selected PortalGuard through a competitive procurement process, based on the solution’s comprehensive IAM capabilities and flexibility to apply appropriate security policies to a variety of user access scenarios. An essential element identified in the municipality’s decision-making process was support for numerous MFA options, including Identity-Bound Biometrics that validate the user’s identity – not just the device – to access sensitive data. PortalGuard will significantly improve user access security by providing the city’s IT team the ability to manage different methods of MFA security policies for all users. Importantly, PortalGuard does not require users’ phones to be a primary second factor, eliminating the security and privacy risks related to personal phones.

“As IT security becomes more strategic and critical to an organization’s effectiveness, companies are looking to accelerate deployment of advanced security solutions, while also reducing IT costs and complexity,” said Robert DeVita, CEO and Founder, Mejeticks. “The PortalGuard solution delivers immediate value to our customers by providing a more secure, predictable, and scalable solution versus other competitive alternatives. Through our relationship with Intelisys, we look forward to a long partnership with BIO-key providing best-of-breed security benefits to our customers.”

“Increasing numbers of municipalities and local government offices worldwide have reported significant data losses due to municipal cyber-attacks which can have far greater repercussions than similar attacks on an individual company’s IT assets,” said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. “In partnership with Mejeticks and master agent Intelisys, we are uniquely positioned in the cyber security market to offer municipalities a comprehensive IAM security feature set.”

About Mejeticks (www.mejeticks.com)
Mejeticks is an IT Advisory and Consulting firm with over 20 years of experience in helping Enterprise Customers with Network, Voice, Cloud, and Data Center vendor selection. With a broad offering of Technology solutions from over 250 providers, Mejeticks serves as a trusted advisor to our enterprise clients in the areas of Unified Communications (UCAAS), Network, Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS), Data Center, and Security solutions and help them transform their business to compete in today’s expanding digital world. Mejeticks is proud to be powered by Intelisys.

About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key’s patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.

BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”). The words “estimate,” “project,” “intends,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management’s beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.

BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158

Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800