NW_20010321_en_VASCO Expands Reach to Billion-Dollar Smart Card Market Worldwide with Digipass 110

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. and BRUSSELS, Belgium -- March 21, 2001 -- VASCO (NASDAQ & EASDAQ: VDSI; www.vasco.com), a global provider of enterprise-wide security solutions that support e-business and e-commerce, today announced its Digipass 110 secure smart card, the latest addition to the Digipass family of strong authentication and digital signature products. The Digipass 110, which is transparent to all market-leading smart card operating systems, allows any organization to take full advantage of Digipass security on a smart card platform. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the market for smart cards in Europe alone is expected to reach one billion cards by 2004. By 2005, IDC expects the rest of the world to account for more than half of the worldwide smart card market, thanks to accelerating growth for smart cards outside of Europe.

“The Digipass 110 represents VASCO’s ability to rapidly deliver new products to the market that meet the business needs of our customers,” explained Jan Valcke, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for VASCO. “More and more of our customers are evaluating smart cards for an increasing number of applications, including network security, access to data and applications, and secure electronic commerce. Because it is compatible with all market-leading smart card operating systems, we expect sales for the Digipass 110 and other upcoming Digipass smart cards to quickly add to our revenue stream.”

VASCO’s Digipass provides anytime, anywhere, anyhow security through patented dynamic password and digital signature technologies that help ensure positive identification of remote users and the integrity of data and transactions. The Digipass family of products now includes the Digipass 110 smart card, Digipass 300, Digipass 600 providing logical and physical authentication in one device, Digipass 700, Digipass 800 portable and secure smart card reader, and Digipass Soft, which combines the security advantages of Digipass strong authentication and digital signature with the flexibility of a software-based solution.



About VASCO
VASCO secures the enterprise from the mainframe to the Internet with infrastructure solutions that enable secure e-business and e-commerce, protect sensitive information, and safeguard the identity of users. The Company's family of Digipass® and SnareWorks® products offers end-to-end security through strong authentication and digital signature, true Single Sign-On, access control and advanced entitlements, web portal security, and PKI enablement, while sharply reducing the time and effort required to deploy and manage security. VASCO's customers include hundreds of financial institutions, blue-chip corporations, and government agencies in more than 50 countries. More information is available at www.vasco.com.


Forward Looking Statements
Statements made in this news release that relate to future plans, events or performances are forward-looking statements. Any statement containing words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” and similar words, is forward-looking, and these statements area based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the potential that the Identikey acquisition will not be consummated, variations in quarterly operating results, technological changes, regulation of cryptographic technology and technology exports, and foreign exchange risk, among others. Consequently, actual results could differ materially from the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements.


Reference is made to the Company's public filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for further information regarding the Company and its operations.

For more information contact:

Americas:
Media: Kerry Roche, Bridgeman Communications, +1 617 742 7270, [email protected]
Investor Relations: Todd Fromer, KCSA Public Relations Worldwide, +1 212 682 6300, [email protected]
VASCO: Mike Lange, +1 630 932 8844, [email protected]

Europe/Asia:
Media (Benelux): Nico Tempelaere, Outsource, +32 2 361 31 20, [email protected]
Media (Europe/Asia): Sven Kersten, HBI, +49 89 99 38 87 33, [email protected]
Investor Relations: Annemieke Blondeel, LBConsult, +44 208 308 7080, [email protected]
VASCO: Ariane Bosmans, +32 2 456 9810, [email protected]