Nigeria
There has been frustration among citizens in Nigeria who have been unable to have their National Identification Number (NIN) confirmed, due to problems with the verification portal of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
This has prevented banks from rendering certain services to customers, whose NIN have to be verified on the NIMC verification portal. Also affected are people who want to register for new SIM cards, as well as those seeking to apply for new international passports from the Nigeria Immigration Service, renew expired passports or apply for driver’s licence.
The NIMC portal allows telecoms companies, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), banks, and organisations to verify the NIN of their customers before providing them with services.
However, a spokesperson for the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) directive said that there was nothing wrong with the portal, claiming it could be “poor network from the users’ end.”
Sweden
A Swedish government inquiry has issued a report recommending the country launches its own digital identity as soon as possible.
The report argues that digitalisation has raised questions about privacy, secure identification and processing of personal data, as well as public confidence in payments and the financial system. These issues have been further highlighted by the war in Ukraine. A national electronic ID would provide the highest level of assurance and security without the need for companies to conduct comprehensive identification, according to the report.
“The Inquiry is of the opinion that primary identification of citizens and residents is a central government responsibility. In view of this, the Inquiry assesses that it is extremely urgent that a national e-id be introduced with the highest level of security as soon as possible.”
Sweden is one of only four EU states, alongside Cyprus, Greece, and Romania, which lacks a state-issued digital ID. Currently, Sweden widely uses BankID, Freja and Svenska Pass for verifying digital identity.
United States
Digital identity network ID.me said that more than 100 million Americans have signed up for an ID.me Digital Wallet to speed access to services and benefits.
“103 million Americans represents a new high-water mark on our team’s journey to take friction out of people’s lives while helping them access services and benefits they deserve,” said Blake Hall, co-founder and CEO of ID.me. “We know people are frustrated by having to manage passwords and to re-prove who they are at each website they visit. ID.me is designed to be the last login you need to create and manage, and the last identity verification you complete. Your data should move with you across the internet.”
ID.me’s Wallet enables users to more easily log in and prove their identity across a network of public, healthcare, financial services, retail and travel sector platforms. Fourteen federal agencies, 35 agencies in 30 states and more than 500 private and nonprofit organizations accept credentials that can be stored in the ID.me Digital Wallet.
Germany
The Iota Foundation has partnered with walt.id, which bills itself as a provider of identity and NFT infrastructure for developers, to launch a new solution they said brings privacy protection and self-sovereign identity to identity and access management.
Walt.id was awarded the project last June, and developed the IDP Kit as an identity provider compliant with OpenID Connect to enable the use of Verified Credentials with legacy IAM solutions. It provides an implementation of the Iota Identity Framework in its Wallet Kit and SSI Kit for developers to build applications enabled for the Self-Issued OpenID Connect Protocol (SIOP). Developers can create and register a Decentralized Identifier (DID) on the Iota Network, and then issue and verify VCs based on an Iota identity.
Users can issue VCs for access management, verify them against dynamic policies, and build identity wallets to store and manage them.
United States / Puerto Rico
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is to start letting passengers use their digital driving licence or state ID card stored on their smartphone to verify their identity at checkpoints in Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico and Nashville International Airport in Tennessee later this year.
The TSA is to roll out support for contactless digital ID verification at the two airports as part of its ongoing pilot scheme to test the acceptance of state-issued mobile driving licences and state ID cards at security checkpoints that it originally unveiled in January 2022 and is currently being implemented at nearly 20 airports across the US.
The pilot technology enables passengers to download a TSA-approved digital ID app to their mobile device and verify their identity at a TSA checkpoint by scanning a QR code issued by the app.
France
Eviden, the Atos business specialising in digital, cloud, big data and security, has flagged a range of forthcoming digital identity management products that it said, “will be ready for the post-quantum era.”
While powerful quantum computers will be able to break classical cryptography within a few years, Eviden said post-quantum cryptography (PQC) represents the most promising avenue to thwart the quantum threat.
The Eviden launch includes IDnomic PKI, a multi-purpose Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) software suite for production and issuance of trusted digital identities. It has also announced Cryptovision GreenShield, a solution for email and file encryption, approved for the exchange of classified information (EU and NATO restricted, EUCI, VS-NfD certified), accredited by the German BSI and approved by the European Council.
Europe
A consortium of Europe’s digital identity stakeholders has launched a new programme to promote the development and deployment of new use cases of the latest version of the European Union’s digital identity framework. That involves operating large-scale pilots for the European Digital Identity Wallet.
Digital Credentials for Europe (DC4EU) will test the framework’s interoperability for cross-border applications in pre-production systems. Its findings could be used to inform future revisions to eIDAS regulations, according to a funding announcement.
Digital identity wallet testing will look at Qualified Electronic Attestations of Attributes (QEAA), Electronic Attestations of Attributes (EAA) and credentials. The use cases tested will include the sharing of educational credentials, professional qualifications, the PDA1 European Social Security Pass, and the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC).
The estimated cost of the programme is 19.2 million euros, with funding provided by a grant from the EU Digital Europe Programme. The consortium behind it includes 80 representative organisations from 22 EU member states, plus Norway and Ukraine. Many of those representatives are universities, but some are public agencies or businesses, like Atos.
Australia
Auckland-based MATTR has been selected as New South Wales’ tech partner for the Australian state’s Digital ID and Verifiable Credentials programme.
“Our verifiable credentials solution helps organizations who are looking for ways to create confidence in digital interactions,” said CEO Claire Barber. “We apply data minimisation principles that enable individuals to share the information they need to, without oversharing, and which avoid the creation of unnecessary data ‘honeypots’ that can then be targeted by bad actors.”
The NSW digital ID solution will enable users to confirm their age for alcohol purchases, and to renew a “Working with Children Check” remotely. MATTR says it will be a decentralised solution, but one that does not use blockchain technology.
Singapore
In Singapore, there is a new digital vocational license (DVL) scheme that allows taxi and bus drivers to store their licenses on their smartphones. The DVL can be accessed through the Singpass app, the country’s national digital identity platform, and enables drivers to update their personal information and licence status online. The DVL scheme is part of Singapore’s efforts to digitalise the transport sector and enhance service standards.
Lithuania
Lithuania-based regtech iDenfy has partnered with PPC tracking and real-time marketing analytics software Dialics to improve security with identity verification.
The implementation of the AI-powered ID verification solution is set to help ensure KYC (know your customer) compliance and an expedited onboarding process for Dialics.
The Dialics platform enables “simplified management of Pay-Per-Сall (PPC) marketing campaigns while offering instant access to analytical data and the ability to process international inbound calls.”
Global
TransUnion has reported an 80 percent increase in digital fraud attempts globally from pre-pandemic levels.
TransUnion’s 2023 State of Omnichannel Fraud Report found that 4.6 percent of digital transactions analysed were potentially fraudulent in 2022, similar to the rate seen in 2019. However, despite an easing of the digital fraud rate back to the 2019 level, the global volume of digital fraud attempts increased by 80 percent from 2019 to 2022, together with an increase in digital transactions throughout the same period.
