It’s difficult and perhaps even distasteful to find much positive business news in the economic pandemonium stemming from the terrorist hijackings. Nevertheless, a handful of once obscure high-tech companies are suddenly in hot demand because of the new interest in security. Airports and agencies like the FAA, under fire for laxness, are now rushing to contact firms peddling biometric technology, which authenticates identity by measuring physical characteristics like fingerprints. Meanwhile, firms that safeguard business data, or that provide alternatives to air travel, are watching as their stock prices rise while the markets plummet.
The Jersey City, N.J.-based Visionics had to install new phone lines last week–after hearing from nearly every major airport in America. The company sells the controversial video scanners that checked faces in a crowd against law-enforcement databases during the Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., last year. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based Identix, which has technology that checks fingerprints, says it’s been “pounded” with inquiries from potential new customers, including the FAA, in the wake of the attacks. The companies’ stocks rose 244 and 186 percent respectively in last week’s brutal market. Meanwhile, Ralph Sheridan, CEO of AS& E, whose advanced X-ray machines cost twice as much as conventional units, spent the week of the tragedy huddling with officials in Washington, D.C. The attacks have caused “a sea change in what the country is willing to spend on homeland defense,” he says.
Even battered telecom firms like AT&T and Worldcom are benefiting as companies add capacity and backups to their networks to insulate themselves from other disasters. Both stocks remained unruffled by the market downturn last week. The telecoms are also seeing an uptick in the use of their teleconferencing and videoconferencing services. AT&T reported a 15 percent jump in demand in the past two weeks. Apparently, businesses are using them as an alternative to air travel. You can hardly blame them.
