Spreadtrum Joins Hands with IFAA on Framework for the Country's Iris-based Payment Authentication System

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HANGZHOU, China, Oct. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Spreadtrum Communications ("Spreadtrum"), a leading fabless semiconductor company in China with advanced technology in 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless communication standards, today announced the entry into a strategic cooperation with Internet Finance Authentication Alliance (IFAA) to jointly promote the framework and development of an iris-based payment authentication system in China.

IFAA was launched by a group of firms and institutions including Ant Financial, Alibaba, Samsung, Huawei, ZTE and CAICT (China Academy of Information and Communications Technology). The alliance is very influential in the domain of authentication in China, with their local standard having already been applied to over 90 million mobile phone devices and facial recognition standard having served over 60 million users.

With the continued rapid development of mobile internet, the importance of the security of smartphones has become ever more urgent. Conventional simplex authentication products fail to meet the pressing demand among consumers for the securing of their personal information and financial transactions. As the most stable, most accurate and safest biological recognition technology available to date, iris recognition is the best next step in terms of upgrading the present security recognition system. Spreadtrum started the research into iris-based recognition technology as early as 2015 and has launched an iris-based support for authentication, Zitan^TM Security Solutions, providing a high-functioning fully dynamic encryption for iris-based data protection and authentication services.

As part of the strategic cooperation, Spreadtrum will join hands with the IFAA to collaborate closely in the area of iris-based recognition and authentication services with special focus on the chips, the system, the software and the operation, while, at the same time, facilitating the standardization of the industry as concerns chip security, environmental reliability, data collection, the algorithm, encryption keys and iris-based authentication in a move to enhance the end-user experience with the authentication process while guaranteeing the security of end-user private information and exchanges of information.

Dr. Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum Communications, commented: "We feel deeply honored to work with such a strong ally as IFAA. Spreadtrum owns an advantage in terms of leading technologies in the field of iris-based authentication. In 2016, in collaboration with our partners we plan to enhance the core services provided by iris-based authentication and the build out of an end-to-end ecosystem for supporting security needs based on Spreadtrum's latest SoC platform, SC9860, providing more professional, more secure products and services with a better user experience."

"An industrial challenge calls for an industrial solution," IFAA board chairman Mr. Feng Chunpei said, "As a mainstream authentication technology platform serving China, IFAA has proactively planned and promoted standards related to iris-based authentication since 2015. With the joint efforts from upstream and downstream firms across the industry chain put in place by Spreadtrum, we expect to promote the application of iris-based authentication, to achieve industry-wide standardization within a short time and to guarantee the security of the financial information of our users."

About Spreadtrum Communications

Spreadtrum Communications is a fabless semiconductor company that develops mobile chipset platforms for smartphones, feature phones and other consumer electronics products, supporting 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards. Spreadtrum's solutions combine its highly integrated, power-efficient chipsets with customizable software and reference designs in a complete turnkey platform, enabling customers to achieve faster design cycles with a lower development cost. Spreadtrum's customers include global and China-based manufacturers developing mobile products for consumers in China and emerging markets around the world. Spreadtrum is a privately held company headquartered in Shanghai and an affiliate of Tsinghua Unigroup, Ltd. For more information, visit www.spreadtrum.com.

About IFAA

IFAA was founded on June 19, 2015 by six members, including Ant Financial, Alibaba, CAICT, Huawei, Samsung and ZTE. IFAA's mission is to provide secure and easy-to-use Internet identity authentication service that can be accessed everywhere in Internet. In order to achieve this, IFAA has built lots of innovative Internet identity authentication standards and also coordinated R&D of the whole industrial chain, including application, OEMs, security vendors, chip vendors, algorithm vendors, regulators and so on. Until Oct 2016, the IFAA protocol based fingerprint solution has covered 36 OEMs and 180+ device models. More information, visit http://ifaa.org.cn

SOURCE Spreadtrum Communications, Inc.

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