WISeKey Announces at the World Economic Forum on Latin America 2010 in Cartagena, Colombia an Agreement to Deploy Intelligent eCards for 350,000 Citizens

GENEVA, RIO and CARTAGENA, Colombia, April 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- WISeKey, world leader in solutions designed to secure electronic transactions and cloud computing, reinforces with this deal its presence in Latin America with the signing of an agreement with a group of Brazilian companies NexCardSolutions, Etica Solucoes em TI and Brasilinvest to deploy a project with the name *Cartao Portal*. It consists of an Intelligent eCard simulating the functions of a traditional credit card but reinforced with latest technologies developed by WISeKey and the Brazilian consortium. These include a dual cryptographic microprocessor, robust encryption, strong authentication and digital identification on the eCard, increasing the functionality, security and confidentiality of the user.

The Cartao Portal eCard enables multiple functions such as access to medical services and files, credit and debit functionalities, access control functions to access movie theaters, stadiums, shows, events. It can additionally be used to access public transportation systems.

The confidential data exchanges involved in these services including the financial data collected by the transactional data are stored in "trusted private clouds" at city level which are securely accessed via the Web and Mobiles: The Trusted Private Cloud approach, which has now become a trend in the IT industry, is something WISeKey has been working on for the last 10 years in different countries around the world, with the first e-Government Cloud service implemented by the Geneva Government in cooperation with WISeKey and HP in 2000 allowing citizens to vote online securely. WISeKey provides the logical and mathematical processes and tools allowing these types of citizen services to secure the confidentiality, integrity and anonymity of the information stored in these private clouds.

The original idea to develop *Cartao Portal started from the needs of Uberaba, a city in Southeast Brazil with around 350,000 citizens. This city in the state of Minas Gerais carries many characteristics of similar councils in Latin America -- an agro-industrial hub, low-tech enterprises, but also fierce challenges in areas such as public sanitation and housing.

"We were looking for a dynamic solution that could integrate the multiple services into a citizen platform" mentioned Anderson Adauto Pereira, Mayor of Uberaba. "This new online tool provides the required dignity and social satisfaction via a technology of the 21 century", he added.

For Marcello Hallake, International Director of CDI (Centro para a Democratizacao da Informatica), NGO active in dozens of countries, this is "just the type of project required for reinforcing the digital citizenship. It converts complex technologies into an integrated simple use device. This is the right reference for other cities in Latin America".

"With the increased global interest towards Brazil thanks to the FIFA World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, this is a spectacular solution for visitors to the country. The applications for the tourism sector are enormous", said Ricardo Albin, from the Cultural Council of Rio de Janeiro.

Mario Garnero, Chairman of Brasilinvest and Forum das Americas eyes the Cartao Portal as "yet another bright example on how to empower the notion of e-citizenship throughout Latin America. Making life easier is the right way to spread technology use wide in our region "

Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO of WISekey Worldwide asserted that "this first Cartao Portal project Integrates fully into the strategy of the company for Latin America by deploying sophisticated technologies that facilitate services and functionalities to the citizens whilst allowing them to maintain the control of their identities and cloud services at local level."

Moreira mentioned that the increasing presence of WISeKey in the LATAM region would be strongly oriented towards the establishment of technology transactional hubs, which provide the required platform for industrial development of technologies, local R&D and development of applications for enterprises, governments and individuals. WISeKey already established WISeKey Brazil with BrasilInvest and is now expanding in many other countries in the region.

Recognized as a *Global Growth Company* by the World Economic Forum, WISeKey has also attracted the interest of MIT (*Massachusetts Institute of Technology*), the world mecca for research and technological entrepreneurship.

Moreira will share his vision and plans for WISeKey towards Latin America in an address to a selected audience of over 500 entrepreneurs and members of the science community in New England during the traditional *MIT Latin Conference* to be held late April in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Marcos Troyjo
    CEO WISekey Brazil
    Tel.: +41-22-929-57-57
    E-Mail: [email protected]

SOURCE WISeKey SA