A North Yorkshire Internet security specialist has received government backing to break into global markets with its revolutionary technology which could be worth billions of pounds.

Swivel Technologies Ltd, of Knaresborough, has won a £40,000 DTI-sponsored Smart award to help develop a secure system for downloading and paying for music and videos on the Internet.

The company, which recently opened an office in Washington DC, hopes to target the lucrative U.S. market with the system and is already in talks with a number of prospective customers.

The technology represents the most significant advance in the use of personal identification numbers in the last three decades and builds on the principle of a PIN known only to the individual and the appropriate institution's server.

Swivel, founded in September, 2000 by five Yorkshire businessmen, received vital assistance by winning the Smart award from Business Link York and North Yorkshire innovation and technology adviser Roger Benson.

The technology is designed to protect online customers' digital identities to prevent hackers accessing personal data and financial information. According to VISA international, credit and debit card fraud is running at about seven pence in every £100 transacted by plastic. This equates to £189 million a year in the UK for VISA alone and the numbers are doubling annually.

Swivel, which employs eight staff at its Knaresborough office in York Place, and four in Washington, has developed a range of applications for its patented technology which is aimed at banks and building societies as well as major high street and online retailers to help to combat credit card fraud and prevent breaches of personal data security.

Each time an organisation wants to verify a customer's identity, the customer is sent a new set of ten random digits to his or her PC, personal digital assistant or mobile phone. Using the PIN, the customer deduces a one-time use code which he or she keys back for authorisation of the transaction.

Using this method the user's PIN is never transmitted over the Internet and so cannot be intercepted and stolen.

The technology was originally developed by Swivel's chief technical officer, Winston Keech, the Whitby inventor whose father invented the ink used in Lazlo Biro's first ballpoint pen and who was a victim of a credit card fraud that cost him over £2,000.

Swivel Technologies co-founder and chief executive Rik Currie says: "Solving the problem of Internet fraud is fundamental to the success of e-commerce-based industries such as credit and debit card companies as well as revitalising the faltering dot com sector.

Updated: 08:59 Tuesday, May 21, 2002