Cogent Systems Receives Letter of Intent for $31.75 Million Follow-on Order from the Venezuelan National Electoral Council.

SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. -- Cogent Systems (Nasdaq:COGT) today announced it has received a letter of intent for a $31.75 million follow-on order to add capabilities to its Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) solution for the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Venezuela. The follow-on contract is for the joint development by CNE and Cogent of a completely paperless national voter registration and authentication system for an upgraded database of 24,000,000 voters. The system upgrade will include the configuration, distribution and operation of 12,000 stations nationwide as well as the hiring and training of 16,000 operators for the upcoming state and county elections scheduled for the third quarter of 2005.

Last year Cogent was awarded a contract to provide its AFIS solution for the Venezuelan national referendum, which took place on August 15, 2004, and a separate contract for the mayoral and regional elections in Venezuela on October 31, 2004. Cogent's AFIS solution was utilized to capture voters' fingerprints, create a database, and match the fingerprints to authenticate voters' identities and prevent duplicate registration.

"Cogent is dedicated to delivering state of the art technology and great value to the CNE, as it expands the database size and increases the capabilities of our AFIS system for the upcoming elections," commented Ming Hsieh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogent. "The development of a completely paperless system for the CNE significantly improves upon the speed and accuracy of the voting process."

About Cogent Systems

Cogent is a leading provider of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, or AFIS, and other fingerprint biometric solutions to governments, law enforcement agencies and other organizations worldwide. Cogent's AFIS solutions enable customers to capture fingerprint images electronically, encode fingerprints into searchable files and accurately compare a set of fingerprints to a database containing potentially millions of fingerprints in seconds.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's current estimates and expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Cogent is providing this information as of the date of this press release, and expressly disclaims any duty to update information contained in this press release.

Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, express and implied statements regarding Cogent's future domestic and international growth, and opportunities in the civil market for voting applications. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied here. Readers are referred to Cogent's Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 filed by Cogent with the Securities and Exchange Commission which identifies important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the final approval process by relevant Venezuelan authorities and the terms of the definitive agreement; changes in government policies; deriving a significant portion of revenues from a limited number of customers; deriving a significant portion of revenues from the sale of solutions pursuant to government contracts; failure of the biometrics market to experience significant growth; failure of Cogent's products to achieve broad acceptance; failure to successfully compete; failure to comply with government regulations; negative publicity and/or loss of clients due to security breaches resulting in the disclosure of confidential information; loss of export licenses or changes in export laws; failure to manage projects; rapid technology change in the biometrics market; loss of a key member of management team; termination of backlog orders; loss of limited source suppliers; negative audits by government agencies; failure to protect intellectual property; and exposure to intellectual property and product liability claims. The information contained in this press release is a statement of Cogent's present intention, belief or expectation and is based upon, among other things, existing industry conditions, market conditions, the economy in general and Cogent's assumptions. Cogent may change its intention, belief or expectation, at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in its assumptions or otherwise. Cogent undertakes no obligation to review or confirm analysts' expectations or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.