Editorial

Digital Identity: Global Roundup

Digital identity news from around the world

Posted 30 May 2023 by Christine Horton


United States

Onfido has acquired Airside Mobile, which supplies digital identity solutions to the travel industry.

Airside’s shareable digital identity technology has been used by more than 10 million travellers and U.S. government agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Its customers include the world’s largest airlines, who allow passengers to use the Airside Digital Identity App to fast-track passengers through U.S. airports.

Onfido said Airside’s ‘privacy-first’ identity management technology, combined with its own verification, enables customers to manage their own digital identity stored on their smartphone — using it to access new services without having to verify again. The integration will “enable businesses to create a seamless user experience that supports more effective onboarding and expanded customer relationships, while radically reducing fraud and minimising the liability associated with handling sensitive data.”

Caribbean

Leaders of eleven countries of the Caribbean have agreed on a number of actions needed to expand digital transformation and innovation efforts among members countries.

As part of the agreement, the ‘Port of Spain Commitment on Digital Transformation,’ the countries will pursue cross-border recognition of digital IDs as well as address aspects related to data privacy and protection.

The countries include Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Suriname, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Per the agreement, they will also develop a common validation of national forms of identification and credentials based on an interoperable digital identity that will facilitate movement and access to an array of public services.

United States

The research arm of the Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with testing to evaluate the effectiveness of remote identity validation technologies.

DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate said that it would conduct new tests that focus specifically on the ability of systems to match selfies to photos on identity documents, a process meant to weed out any fraudsters trying to use stolen IDs. It is taking applications from tech developers who want to participate through June 22.

Germany / Africa

German secure ID firm Veridos continues making moves in Africa. On the heels of a recent MOU aimed at simplifying cross-border travel between Namibia and Botswana, Veridos has announced that its products have been selected to implement the process. This comes as the company bids to win a national identity card contract in Uganda.

Veridos’ system means that citizens crossing the border in either direction can do so with only their digital ID cards. Passports will no longer be required. To coordinate this, the two nations aligned their systems with Veridos’ support. Namibia added QR codes and a machine-readable zone to its national ID cards, to match technology already present in Botswana’s cards.

India

The plan by India’s government to make rule changes that will allow private entities to carry out ID authentication using the Aadhaar digital ID has been criticised by groups and organisations who have called for an outright rejection of the proposal.

Their concern is that the changes to the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020, will give room for “commercial exploitation” of people’s personal data.

Europe

CLR Labs, a European laboratory dedicated to the evaluation of biometric and security technologies, and LSTI, a conformity assessment body (CAB) specialising in cybersecurity and data protection, have launched their ISO/IEC 30107 conformity assessment scheme, which enables them to evaluate any product or service using biometric technologies. Identity proofing provider IDnow has obtained the first LSTI ISO/IEC 30107 certificate for its VideoIdent solution.

Published in 2017, the ISO/IEC 30107 standard defines safety measures and presentation attack tests on remote identity proofing systems, in order to protect them and prevent these attacks. The conformity certificate is issued by LSTI, based on CLR Labs’ evaluation work. This involves both presentation attacks and biometric data injection tests, such as facial recognition attacks based on deep-fake technology. Until now, the only certification scheme available was from the United States. In Europe, only compliance projects have been carried out so far.

The initiative provides a guaranteed level of performance assessment of presentation attack detection given by biometric technologies, acknowledged by the cyber industry.