ePortID
Contactless Biometrics for the Real World

With growing concerns about physical contact and contagions spurred by the pandemic, it is safe to say that contactless is the new normal. Today, the spread of COVID-19 has everyone wary of touching card readers, keypads, and other devices used for identity authentication. Given that the pandemic is influencing people’s attitudes toward interaction with touch-based solutions, companies are readily switching to advanced biometric authentication solutions, contactless biometrics in particular, for enhanced security and safety measures. Additionally, amidst the sharply increasing phishing attacks and fraud, companies have realized that the foundation of cybersecurity begins with effective physical access control. It has compelled them to rethink their security posture and strengthen authentication measures for verification and anti-spoofing. “With the exception of palm vein scanning, all other biometric measures such as facial recognition, iris scanning, and fingerprints, are external measure of identity and can be copied/cloned, and compromised,” asserts Paul Labow, President and CEO at ePortID LLC—a leading contactless biometric authentication solutions provider. The company’s biometrics identity verification using palm vein scanning allows for the seamless automation of identity verification, bringing value to virtually every industry.

ePortID is a solutions development partner with Fujitsu Frontech North America, a leading provider of market-focused IT solutions. Labow explains that the Fujitsu scanner uses near-infrared light to illuminate the vein pattern under a person’s skin, which is unique for every individual. It leverages over five million reference points to create an encrypted template for rapid identification (under two seconds). This contactless biometric is very fast, under two seconds, highly accurate, encrypted, and incredibly secure as it only allows access after liveness detection, i.e., checking if blood is flowing through the circulatory system. “We have extensive experience of deploying biometrics such as fingerprints, hand geometry, face recognition, and iris scan, since 2006. In 2012, we came across palm vein scanning and immediately adopted it because it’s the best, most effective, least intrusive, and easiest biometric to deploy and positively identify an individual,” says Labow.

Labow emphasizes that ePortID has added context and capabilities to this technology, thereby making it easy to answer identity verification needs in various locations and situations. The company’s integrated contactless biometric solutions provide unparalleled biometric identification for access control (physical and logical), time and attendance, single sign-on, and more. The ePortID list of solutions includes ePortPass, a facility security system that manages access control; PalmClock™, a real-time, highly accurate time and attendance system; and HotKeyID™, a system for verifying identity across multiple data systems in real-time. Moreover, the company developed its unique Quintain Gate™ Security System to meet Coast Guard requirements around TWIC (Transportation Workers Identification Credential,) and more. Also, ePortID provides secure solutions built specifically for students, schools, and universities.

ePortID is very easy to set up, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)-capable and enables multi-factor authentication.

In 2012, we came across palm vein scanning and immediately adopted it because it’s the best, most effective, least intrusive, and easiest biometric to deploy and positively identify an individual

“It runs entirely independent of any core systems on secure,proprietary software and our clients can connect all their disparate global locations together into one system,” states Labow. The palm vein scanners work in combination with ePortID’s agile software with a simple and intuitive interface.

Concern has increased recently about the security of software built off-shore. Labow stresses that it has been an ePortID long term policy that all ePortID code is built in the USA by U.S. citizens, which increases security. Moreover, the company only uses components manufactured in the U.S. or by allied countries.

ePortID is available as small and discrete units that are easy to install. Besides, ePortID can integrate with clients’ existing access control systems and even function independently. As such, ePortID can be installed and deployed anywhere—point-of-sale locations, server rooms, hospitals, warehouses, banks, storage depots, seaports, chemical refineries, and more. For instance, a Canadian company recently put the ePortID solution in their automated drug kiosks for dispensing medicines and controlled substances. Now users just scan their hand and get identified in two seconds. The information is then passed to an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system that checks their prescription, and the kiosk dispenses the medication.

The ePortID suite of solutions provides sets of easy-to-use, flexible, and configurable tools that companies can tailor to their own requirements at an affordable price. ePortID can be used for workforce management, patient identity integrity, visitor/vendor management, point-of-sale, and other security access functions while generating data customers can use for their KPI. Besides identifying a person with ease, speed, and accuracy, ePortID informs the concerned authority right away to ensure that the right action is taken.

Today, ePortID has customers from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. As all ePortID systems can be operated in any foreign language, the company envisions expanding into the UK and Europe soon. ePortID is currently adding more capabilities to its solution, such as fully contactless mechanical door opening or triggering an industrial machine to stop, all based on a contactless palm vein scan. “Our goal is to create a complete, robust solution for contactless access. We believe change is constant and we are constantly changing to meet the new needs of our customers,” concludes Labow.