New Zealand
NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says RealMe, the government digital identity system used to log into services like Inland Revenue and My Covid Record, temporarily stopping working last week creating concerns by some that a Russian cyberattack was underway.
The Department of Internal Affairs, the agency running RealMe, confirmed the issues weren’t related to a cyberattack, but concerns continue to escalate over the ever growing cyber issues that New Zealand businesses are facing.
According to CERT NZ the number of reported issues continues to grow month on month. In 2021, there were 8331 reported cyberattacks or online scams reported, up 6.7 percent from 2020.
CERT NZ reported that in the last quarter of 2021, more than $6 million was lost by Kiwis to cyberattackers.
Tasmania
Tasmania has put out to tender a contract for the first stage of a digital services platform that will enable Tasmanians to have a unified digital account to access services online, iTnews reports via Biometric Update.
The plan includes combining separate digital identities registered with the government into a “whole-of-government identifier.”
The bidding process, which is open until May 23, 2022, will see the selection of a vendor who will develop, maintain and support stage 1 of a digital services portal “myServiceTas.” Stage 1 of the digital services portal will see the creation of a digital identity-based customer account enabling Tasmanians to log in and access government services digitally, according to the service description.
The move is reportedly part of the government’s efforts to make improvements to the way people access digital services. The digital services portal will enable the integration of services such as the creation of a Motor Registry client ID, and the linking of discrete government identities to a single whole-of-government identifier.
Elsewhere in Australia, the Department of Home Affairs is set to spend at least $20 million on contractors to test Home Affairs projects including the permissions capability, identity and biometrics, and criminal intelligence data sharing.
Brazil
São Paulo, Brazil-based unico has raised $100 million in a Series D funding round and plans to expand into other countries in Latin America.
The funding round was reportedly led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, with participation from previous investors SoftBank and General Atlantic, and gives unico a $2.6 billion valuation.
The latter two led unico’s previous funding round, when it became the country’s first biometrics unicorn by raising 625 million reals (then just over US$120 million), and its Series B before that, back when the company was called Acesso Digital.
Japan
Fujitsu and the Keio Research Institute at SFC have finished a month-long trial of a self-sovereign digital identity for students that allows a range of identity-related services outside of education.
Fujitsu says its intent is to establish a self-sovereign ID to address problems related to management of personal data, the fragmented storage of personal data across various sites that creates difficulties, and data incompatibilities with other organisations.
The trial, which took place from March 17, 2022 to April 12, 2022, issued a digital student ID via Keio University’s Next-Generation Digital Identity Platform that was transformed by the identity conversion gateway to examine the applications of online services connected to an identity platform that uses Fujitsu’s digital identity exchange named ‘IDentitY eXchange.’
Argentina
Argentine national security agencies have reportedly acquired access to the biometric records of seven million people, including the president, and footage from Buenos Aires for identifying demonstrators via facial recognition cameras when authorized to access a list of fewer than 50,000 persons of interest.
The Buenos Aires judge who discovered the scandal has now demanded explanations from the city’s Minister of Security and Justice as to how biometric data of a set of 62 cases relating to the capital, including those of the Argentine president and vice president, were transferred from the national ID database – the Registro Nacional de las Personas (ReNaPer) – to the city’s authorities, namely the police, reports Página 12/Público.
