eTUNNEL wins contract to supply biometric smart cards for UN organizations

The International Telecommunication Union has chosen eTUNNEL Inc. to provide it with biometric smart cards for deployment across its member organizations.

South Korea-based eTUNNEL will provide a card holder and fingerprint registration software, along with the card itself.

The card displays the name and photo of its owner, and includes a microchip and fingerprint sensor to authenticate them. Using the biometric card will not only protect against identity theft and fraud, the announcement says, but also support authentication from a PC, email encryption, digital document signing and electronic voting. Each of these functions is critical to the operation of UN organizations, according to eTUNNEL.

The deal could generate $75 million over the next five years for eTUNNEL, according to the announcement. The figures assume a three-year replacement cycle for the biometric cards.

ITU member organizations include the United Nations and 40 affiliated organizations, and between them, eTUNNEL plans to issue up to a million cards.

The cards from eTUNNEL utilize the company’s P2N2 Integrated Biometric Recognition AI Engine. The P2N2 engine supports face, palm vein and iris biometrics, in addition to fingerprints. The versatility of the biometric engine also makes eTUNNEL’s card flexible enough to the different security needs of various UN affiliates, the company says.

eTUNNEL also plans to expand its biometric product line with a finger vein scanner for logging on to a PC, biometric door locks, and personal devices with built-in facial and fingerprint recognition, all targeted to UN applications.

The company was founded in 2021, and emphasizes the potential market impact of its collaboration with the ITU.

The ITU also co-organized the SDG Digital event, held at UN headquarters over the weekend, with the UNDP, to promote digital public infrastructure development.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric cards  |  biometrics  |  eTUNNEL  |  fingerprint recognition  |  SDG 16.9  |  SDG Digital  |  United Nations