Sophisticated hacking techniques have left businesses more vulnerable than ever
while rendering traditional authentication methods inadequate to protect them.
That's why Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) today unveiled a new kind of
virtual smart card that offers stronger authentication at significantly less
cost than traditional second-factor authentication options. 


A live webcast of the launch is available on wave.com at 2 p.m. EDT today.

The Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 is the industry's only enterprise-grade virtual
smart card management solution that works on Windows 7. It also supports Windows
8 and 8.1. Wave's new solution emulates the functionality of physical smart
cards or tokens, but offers greater convenience to users, lower total cost of
ownership, and a reduced risk of unauthorized use.


Businesses need to adopt virtual smart cards because today's security landscape
is riddled with data breaches, and recent hacks have shown that current
authentication methods are flawed. Passwords are easy to crack, difficult to
remember and expensive to manage. While tokens and physical smart cards may
provide strong security, the costs to purchase, maintain and replace them when
lost or damaged can quickly rise.


Organizations that deploy Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 gain the security of smart
card authentication while eliminating the problem of lost or stolen tokens and
physical smart cards, resulting in lower costs and fewer help desk incidents.
Many large companies report that more than 30% of physical smart cards and
tokens must be replaced each year. By switching to virtual smart cards, these
companies can save those costs and often 50% or more on the total authentication
solution.


How it works
The Wave solution conveniently provisions virtual smart cards to users' devices
from a central management server, using the Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
security chip as the security foundation for each virtual smart card. The chip's
capabilities include the secure storage of credentials such as keys and
certificates. These TPM chips have been shipping on most business computers for
much of the last decade, with hundreds of millions shipped to date. 


The Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 solution takes the user identity of the
individual and binds it to the unique device identity generated by the TPM chip
in the devices that are associated with that user. Even if a hacker were to gain
access to the user's valid user credentials, without the device ID credential
from one of that user's known and trusted devices, the authentication and access
to the environment or application that they were trying to gain access to would
be denied. This means that a hacker would have to gain physical control of the
targeted user's device, crack the security on the device, and then submit the
valid user credentials from that device before its loss is noticed and its
access is turned off. 


Virtual Smart Card 2.0 enables the enterprise to easily provision, manage and
support virtual smart cards for its users. Virtual smart cards provide an
attractive and convenient path to increased security over usernames and
passwords without the added costs of managing physical smart cards and smart
card readers. 


Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0 gives IT the ability to:



--  Remotely create and delete virtual smart cards 
--  Provide help desk-assisted recovery 
--  Configure PIN and card policies
--  View the status of virtual smart cards and enrolled certificates
--  Generate reports for compliance 
--  Support virtual smart cards on laptops, tablets and desktops with TPM
    1.2 or TPM 2.0



"With Wave Virtual Smart Card 2.0, enterprises can avoid many of the headaches
of traditional authentication technologies with the same security as using
physical smart cards in a PKI environment," said Bill Solms, CEO of Wave.
"Virtual smart cards are less expensive to manage, easier and faster to deploy
and effectively address the problem of lost or stolen tokens."


"DMI has a long history working with Wave Systems to advance the
state-of-the-art in IT security," said Jay Sunny Bajaj, president and CEO of
DMI, a global leader in enterprise mobile solutions and Wave Solutions Partner.
"Wave's new Virtual Smart Card 2.0 enables us to save our clients money, improve
and future-proof their IT security, and enhance the user experience all at the
same time."


Wave's virtual smart card solution can help organizations comply with key
regulations such as PCI, HIPAA and FFIEC. Many of these regulations require
organizations to implement two-factor authentication methods to verify users'
identities when remotely connecting to a network. 


To learn more and to view today's product release webinar (2 p.m. EDT), visit
www.wave.com.


About Wave Systems 
Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) reduces the complexity, cost and uncertainty
of data protection and authentication by starting inside the device. Unlike
other vendors who try to secure information by adding layers of software for
security, Wave leverages the security capabilities built directly into endpoint
computing platforms themselves. Wave has been a foremost expert on this growing
trend, leading the way with first-to-market solutions and helping shape
standards through its work as a board member for the Trusted Computing Group. 


Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), including all
statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent,
belief or current expectations of the company, its directors or its officers
with respect to, among other things: (i) the company's financing plans; (ii)
trends affecting the company's financial condition or results of operations;
(iii) the company's growth strategy and operating strategy; and (iv) the
declaration and payment of dividends. The words "may," "would," "will,"
"expect," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "intend" and similar expressions
and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of
which are beyond the company's ability to control, and that actual results may
differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a
result of various factors. Wave assumes no duty to and does not undertake to
update forward-looking statements.


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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: 

Company: 
Michael Wheeler 
413-243-1600 
mwheeler@wave.com

Investor Relations:
David Collins
Eric Lentini
212-924-9800
wavx@catalyst-ir.com