State Department re-ups Viisage for secure credentials

Viisage Technology Inc. has won a contract increase from the State Department to continue producing highly secure credentials through the company's Trans Digital Technologies unit.

The contract now could be worth up to $121 million, the company said. The department expects demand for U.S. passports to increase by about 20 percent per year, and estimates that the United States will produce 17 million passports annually by 2009.

Programs such as the Electronic Passport program and the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, along with the increase in travel abroad, have fueled growth for new travel documents, according to the company. Viisage's secure credential solution aims to help ensure counterfeit-resistant U.S. passports.

Viisage of Billerica, Mass., has more than 200 employees and had annual sales of $67.5 million in fiscal 2004, according to Hoover's Online of Austin, Texas.