Feature Company

Interview with Christopher LeClerc, President, Liska Biometry
November 2006

FB

Can you please provide our readers with a brief background of the company?

LB

We started out as strictly a biometrics company with a mindset to somewhat change the paradigm of biometrics in both capture and storage. It started out as just a concept and grew into much more of a reality which is what we have today...our BIN or Biometric Identifier Number.

As part of this, we looked at the entire ID management business and recognized that biometrics is a component of the overall solution and if you are going to try and compete on technology alone, you are going to have a tough go of it.

So we merged with a company called Digital Card Systems that had their own proprietary image capture software, bar code technology, smart card expertise, were global with offices in Germany and from that perspective, gave us a much more total solution. That allowed us to integrate our biometric solution into this overall end-to-end capability.

This provides us the opportunity to attack the marketplace with much more strength because when you own all the pieces of the technology you give yourself a significant advantage.

FB

When did the merger occur and does this make you a true global player?

LB

The merger occurred in June of 2006 and yes this does make Liska a global player. This is very important because a big part of all contracts is service and by having offices and personnel around the globe, it allows us to provide the kind of service that is impossible to provide without having a physical presence in the area.

FB

Where globally do you see the greatest growth potential?

LB

Now more that ever, every major identification document...drivers licenses, photo ID cards, passports and even commercial ID's are moving to something far more secure. In many cases this included a biometric. With the new e-passport, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards, the use of chips in passports is very much a global movement. I think Africa will be a massive growth area for example. This growth will not be for just the traditional first world countries, but truly a global opportunity.

FB

That's interesting because we recently attended the ICAO MRTD (Machine Readable Travel Document) meetings in Montreal and it was certainly a very international gathering!

LB

Yes and it should be. If secure identification is to be successful, it means that you cannot have just a few players. This is also why standardization is so critical. The different countries must be able to communicate with a more secure biometric document. There will be privacy concerns and I feel the there should be privacy concerns, but at the same time you must realize the ultimate goal...to move to some form of identification that is more secure than what is currently available.

FB

What other applications is your technology suitable for?

LB

You have the traditional big projects like passport or National ID programs, but what we have tried to do with our total solution is to create a something that is very scaleable and portable. So our solution allows even a small corporation to create secure identification to establish a mindset and usage of the technology. We have created a cost effective solution that is applicable to both small end users all the way up to large government projects.

FB

You mentioned portable solutions. You just announce a new Mobile ID System at ASIS in September. Please tell us about this?

LB

The system, housed in a stainless aluminum alloy briefcase, comes complete with an industry standard fingerprint capture station, signature capture station, and ICAO/ISO portrait capture station. For those programs requiring smart card technology, there is also an RF contact-less pad on board to allow for seamless production of smart credentials. Essentially, everything that you would need to create a very secure ID credential is housed inside this mobile unit. This includes the use of biometrics both inside of the smart card and as a backup on a barcode, which is one of the key points of our technology. One of the things that we have been able to do, in meeting the standards set forth by ICAO and ISO, is to incorporate a 2D barcode on the passport as a secondary check. What this means is that if a chip were to fail in a passport document, we provide a backup solution with the biometric information in the barcode. Again I stress that this is available for both large programs and small enterprise applications.

FB

Thank you Chris for taking the time to speak with us today and congratulations on your successful merger with DCS.

LB

You are most welcome Peter. We are looking forward to the growth in global ID solutions and feel that we are now very well positioned to play a major role in that growth.

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