SchlumbergerSema and Precise Biometrics Integrate Smart Card Authentication Technology

Austin, Texas, February 19, 2002 – SchlumbergerSema, a business unit of Schlumberger Limited, and Precise Biometrics announced today the integration of the Precise Biometrics Match-on-Card™ technology with the SchlumbergerSema Cyberflex Access™ and Cyberflex Palmera™ Java™-based smart cards. The integration enables SchlumbergerSema to bring to market smart cards that use the card-owners fingerprint as identification authentication instead of, or in addition to, a personal identification number (PIN). The SchlumbergerSema cards were the first Visa Open Platform JavaCard™ 2.1 smart cards with cryptographic capabilities to make the Match-on-Card (MoC) application possible last year, and are now the first to put this capability into the application programming interface (API). These developments follow the signing of a joint agreement between the two companies.

Precise Biometrics’ groundbreaking fingerprint authentication system is highly secure and convenient to use; authenticating the user by matching the fingerprint to one digitally stored on the smart card. This capability offers increased security and ease-of-use since the sensitive data is computed directly on the card without the need to rely on the availability or speed of a network for validation. With the biometric profile and the calculations remaining inside the smart card, the risk of this information being compromised is virtually eliminated. This most recent innovation allows the authentication capability to be directly accessed via the cards API, greatly improving the performance and allowing other card applications to easily use the function.

“Verifying a digital imprint with the user’s actual fingerprint is a highly secure means of authentication, but has remained a major challenge because the critical data for authenticating the fingerprint had to be stored on the network,” stated Marten Obrink, deputy CEO at Precise Biometrics. “Today, SchlumbergerSema advanced smart cards can perform this task adding a highly portable layer of security for sensitive logical access applications such as network access, as well as acting as personal biometric tokens for increased security in physical access installations. Working with established standards and technology leaders like SchlumbergerSema provides us the opportunity to rapidly reach users, corporations and government agencies to deploy fingerprint technology into existing infrastructures. With the new match-on-card capability, we expect to see an increasingly large deployment of fingerprint authentication applications in the near future.”

“With the current discussions around card-based identity solutions, our industry is ready to accept the challenge to bring the security capability of the cards up to the high level expected by the public,” stated Paul Beverly, vice president of eTransactions, SchlumbergerSema, North America. “With smart cards rapidly becoming mainstream technology, the benefits of quickly, effectively and securely verifying the owners’ identity without the need to access a network becomes very important. The card is the ideal portable object for secure identification, while respecting the owner’s privacy.”

SchlumbergerSema is the leading provider of secure, convenient smart card-based solutions for corporations, financial institutions, government and wireless operators. SchlumbergerSema is unique in providing a full suite of cards, terminals, software, applications, as well as worldwide service deployment capabilities, including consulting, system integration and managed services.

Prepared for innovative, next generation applications, the Cyberflex Access and Cyberflex Palmera smart cards are designed to complement any existing card infrastructure, enabling easy migration to new smart applications, while providing continuity for current customers to preserve their investment in existing terminals, networks and other equipment. SchlumbergerSema offers the Cyberflex Access card for IT applications, and the Cyberflex Palmera card for banking applications.

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*Biometrics is the technical analysis of biological data for verifying a persons identity.

Cyberflex Access and Cyberflex Palmera are trademarks of Schlumberger. Java and JavaCard are trademarks of Sun Microsystems. Match-on-Card is a trademark of Precise Biometrics. ###

About Precise Biometrics

Precise Biometrics is an innovative security company that supplies world-leading systems for authentication using fingerprints. The solutions supplied by the company replace keys, PIN codes and passwords. The company’s products are cost effective and provide security and comfort combined with top-class protection of personal integrity. The range of products includes systems for access control to computers and networks and for building into mobile and terminals, such as mobile phones and portable computers. The company headquarters are in Lund, Sweden. The company also has offices in Stockholm and a U.S. subsidiary in Washington, D.C. Precise Biometrics is listed on the O-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange (symbol: PREC A).

About SchlumbergerSema

SchlumbergerSema is one of two business segments of Schlumberger Limited, a global technology services company. With more than 30,000 employees serving customers in 65 countries, SchlumbergerSema aggregates IT consulting, systems integration, managed services and related products to the oil and gas, telecommunications, energy and utilities, finance, transport and public sector markets. Leveraging the Schlumberger DeXa* Suite of Services, it also provides IP network connectivity, information security solutions, distributed computing support services and data center hosting services. In 2001, Schlumberger revenues were $14.3 billion.