Daon Powers Qatar's National ID Program.

DOHA, Qatar -- Daon, a global provider of identity assurance software and services, announced today that its software is being used to power a new national identification program in the State of Qatar. The new biometric system which replaces an existing program enrolled its first citizen last week and was opened to the public on Sunday, October 7, with all national ID cards issued since that date utilizing the Daon solution.

Qatar is one of many nations whose citizens are issued a national ID card, which serves as easy and secure proof of identity and residency and also provides access to various services and benefits. With the increasing risk of identity theft and the growing need to better manage citizen security, the Government of Qatar sought to increase the level of trust in the identity of individuals who present these ID cards. The addition of biometric identifiers on the ID cards was selected to provide that additional level of trust.

Following a rigorous selection process to identify a solution provider, Daon was selected in partnership with local integrators ProtechT and QPGI, to provide the National Biometric Infrastructure for the Qatar National Identification Project. Daon provides the core biometric infrastructure product -- DaonEngine[TM] -- and finger, face and iris biometric snap-in interfaces to leading biometric matching algorithms. As part of the project, Daon is integrating with a number of other technology partners.

"Daon was selected to be part of our team because of their unrivalled industry expertise in major biometric programs worldwide in addition to their expert resources and innovative products and technology," commented Antoine Chamieh of ProtechT. "Daon are a highly professional and committed partner of ours and have gone the extra mile in helping to ensure program success."

"This is a major step forward for the State of Qatar Ministry of Interior in the implementation of our e-Security Strategy." commented Col. Saleh Alkubaisi, Director of Information System Department, Ministry of Interior, Qatar. He continued, "Our vision is to build a biometric database and public-key infrastructure (PK)I for all people living in the state of Qatar in addition to the biographic database we have built over the last few years. This vision is becoming a reality and our next step is to provide services using biometric data in addition to the PKI."

Commenting on the launch, Tom Grissen, Daon's CEO said, "This infrastructure will support almost 1 million people in using their biometrics to authenticate themselves to a range of biometrically enable applications. We are pleased to add Qatar to the growing list of countries who have selected Daon products for an end-to-end security scheme based on the principle of one system, multiple missions."

About ProtechT

ProtechT is a Middle-East based IT Security Solutions and Services integrator established to assist organizations in the success of their e-transformation by aggregating secure IT Solutions covering: Network Security, Biometric Identification Systems, Smart Cards, Digital Signatures, Encryption and BS7799 Consulting. For more information please visit www.protecht-me.com

About Daon

Daon is a leading provider of identity assurance software products focused on meeting the needs of governments and commercial organizations worldwide. Daon supports customers and system integrators in building enterprise solutions requiring the highest level of security, performance, scalability, reliability and privacy. The DaonApplicationSuite provides a powerful tool for faster development of scalable, robust and secure identity registration and vetting solutions. Daon's multi-modal authentication infrastructure, DaonEngine, integrates seamlessly with IT platforms and applications and manages the identity life-cycle of small and large populations. Daon's offices are located in Washington DC, Canberra, London and Dublin. For further information please visit www.daon.com.