Johannesburg, 04 Sep 2012
South Africa has scored a first in the biometric technology industry with the development of a new solution - GreenBox.
GreenBox was developed by local company Meniko, a document management specialist that is working closely with Ideco Biometric Security Solutions to take the product to market.
The new solution combines a camera, fingerprint reader, document scanner, digital signature pad with an interactive touch-screen, EMV-compliant smartcard reader, USB connection, device drivers and MS-based operating systems.
GreenBox, which comes in a desktop unit that weighs under 2kg, is set to be showcased at the ITWeb IDentity Indaba Executive Forum, on 11 September.
“It's called GreenBox and it takes ID management to a new level,” says Marius Coetzee, MD of Ideco Biometric Security Solutions. “Not only does GreenBox capture multiple types of ID data, it also provides an identity-verification platform - all from a single device.”
According to Mike Morris, CEO of Meniko, GreenBox is an outstanding example of combining various technologies to dramatically improve how organisations work with identity.
“It offers advantages in so many different areas. And it offers them to a very broad range of organisations.”
Coetzee says, typically, GreenBox is useful to organisations that need to prevent identity-based fraud by securely managing identity within their business processes.
“The financial services industry is a clear example where identity needs to be authenticated accurately during the account-opening process and then during subsequent transactions. For example, the R42 million theft from Postbank at the start of 2012 is reported to have been based on identity fraud - both during the opening of over 400 'mule' accounts in late 2011 into which the money was transferred in early January, as well as during the actual transfers, which appear to have been made by the criminal use of IT access passwords of Postbank employees.”
Coetzee also points out that, in terms of environmental maturity, GreenBox is advanced because of its paperless management of identity data and all the associated paperwork for identification compliances, such as FICA and RICA.
“Conventional forms do not have to be designed, printed, packaged, distributed, filled-in, photocopied or physically stored. The whole process can be automated with GreenBox, and the traditional costs are eliminated by digital management of identity-related data.”
He also points out that GreenBox aims to solve the major challenges that have traditionally dogged the process of authenticating identity.
“With its combination of fingerprint-based identify control linked to digital capturing of ID documents and photos, GreenBox offers the potential to both accelerate identity authentication processes and to dramatically reinforce their security.
“Over and above that, its integral ability to verify identity against a number of sources means it provides a complete identity control solution in one package.”
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