Siemens Computer Systems (SCS) has pushed the price of smartcard-secured PCs to under 1,000 pounds Scenic 620, the new low-end of its Sicrypt range of secure PCs which will list for from 995 pounds ($1,620) in the UK. Sicrypt now boasts three ‘SmartGuard’ editions with differing levels of security, ranging from a private identification number protected Windows NT machine with integral smartcard reader, to a network server boasting 128-bit DES encrypted directories
Ian Stewart, SCS marketing manager, said that the German company’s security offerings are strongly differentiated in the market by SCS’ management of the entire manufacturing process, from fabrication of the chips embedded in smartcards right down into the BIOS level.
Later this year, according to Tom Gundtofte-Bruun, SCS product marketing manager, Siemens will add biometric systems to its systems security armory. We’re ramping up production right now, he said. The system is oriented around fingerprint technology, which may be incorporated into a mouse. Keyboard-based biometrics will be available from this autumn he said.
