News Release November 5, 2006 Ingenia Technology Appoints South African Authentech as Regional Agent Ingenia Technology is delighted to announce that it has appointed Authentech (Pty) Ltd as its regional agent in South Africa. With headquarters in London, Ingenia Technology Limited is an emerging international company specialising in the authentication and verification of papers, plastics and metals, as used in documents, passports, ID and credit cards, product packaging, aerospace components and security seals. Now Authentech is to expand business opportunities involving the new technology in South Africa. Ingenia has sponsored the work of Prof. Russell Cowburn at Imperial College, London, in the development of a revolutionary technology for item level authentication. Laser Surface Authentication (LSA™) is a breakthrough security technology which enables foolproof „fingerprinting‟ of paper and plastic which could be used for:
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Homeland Security Prevention of Identity Theft (Passports, credit cards etc) Crackdown on tobacco and alcohol “grey market” Pharmaceutical counterfeiting Revenue fraud Track and trace of goods worldwide through the supply chain
LSA™ allows for item level authentication by using a low cost scanning laser to rapidly read the equivalent of a natural “fingerprint” inherent within the structure of every item with a reliability level of at least one million trillion. The reflected laser from the surface is used in capturing microscopic signatures of surfaces which forms a unique code for every item and can be later validated in the field using a handheld scanner. Last Thursday (October 26), Ingenia was awarded first prize in recognition of its breakthrough proprietary technology in the “Global Security Challenge”, an annual international competition to find the most promising security technology in the world. Mark McGlade, Director Business Development of Ingenia, commented: “LSA is a genuine break through technology and a huge step forward for the security industry. It opens the way to a new and much simpler approach to authentication and tracking. This is a system so secure that not even the inventors would be able to crack it since there is no known manufacturing process for copying surface imperfections at the necessary level of precision. This system can be a powerful weapon against fraud, terrorism and identity theft.”
Managing Director of Authentech, Dexter Motta-Marques, stated: “We are pleased to be associated with Ingenia as they expand into Africa and very proud to be able to participate in the roll-out of the LSA Technology that has been developed by Professor Russell Cowburn and his Nano-Science Faculty at Imperial College in London. We envisage a number of business areas that can benefit directly from LSA, which is a form of nano-Science: namely the brand protection of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and other branded products The application of LSA to passports, ID cards and driving licences has huge potential in Southern Africa and globally in the fight against fraud and global criminal activities. Ticketing for sporting and cultural events is another large potential beneficiary when it comes to the use of this covert and privacy-neutral technology.” How LSA™ Works Laser Surface Authentication or LSA™, reads the surface of the inherent structure of an object using a low cost laser scanner to identify the unique surface imperfections at near nano-scale (to effectively generate a naturally occurring „fingerprint‟), converts that data into a number and then stores this number securely in a database. The authenticity of the document, packaging or object can be subsequently verified by another simple scan, with a handheld scanner, which will check against the existing stored „fingerprint‟. The reliability is typically greater than that of DNA. LSA™ does not require changes to the manufacturing process or addition of tags, inks etc. LSA™ can be used to prevent the counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals, tobacco, passports, ID cards, automotive and aerospace components, etc. -ENDSContacts: Mark McGlade, Director Business Development, Ingenia Tel.: +44 (0) 870 351 2584 E-mail: mmcglade@ingeniatechnology.com Website: www.ingeniatechnology.com Dexter Motta-Marques, Managing Director, Authentech Tel.: +27 (0)11 469-0486 E-mail: dexter@authentech.co.za Website: www.authentech.co.za