Canada
Fifty-seven percent of Canadians said they were looking to adopt digital verification tools, or saw value in understanding them, according to a survey by Interac. Of those who plan to adopt digital verification, nearly half said they planned to do so in the next year.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents said digital verification improved safety for remote access, and the 80 percent who agreed it improves safety for employees.
The largest worry among business leaders was data privacy, about which 47 percent of respondents had concerns.
But nearly 70 percent of survey respondents who use digital verification either deliver digital verification under a vendor brand or have a vendor endorse it. Customers trust businesses who engage a third party in the security process, especially if the vendor brand brings its own cache of consumer trust.
Nigeria
The World Bank country director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, has announced plans to collaborate with the National Identity Management Commission to ensure the successful rollout and registration of digital national IDs.
The target is to provide at least 148 million people of working age with a digital national ID by the middle of 2024.
United Kingdom
Greater digitisation could alleviate the admin burden around home buying, according to research from risk management platform Thirdfort.
Nearly two-thirds of UK homeowners say providing paper documents to a property professional such as an agent, broker, lawyer or lender would benefit from being digitised. Meanwhile 62 percent suggested providing ID documents to a property professional could be improved by digital tools. Some 60 percent cited undertaking credit checks with a lender.
However, 60 percent of property owners have yet to take advantage of digital tools to buy or sell a property. Just 11 percent have used digital tools to share bank statements, utility bills and payslips to a property professional. Only 10 percent have used digital ID tools to verify identity with a property professional. Just 5 percent have used Open Banking to share bank details for funds or credit checks.
Scotland
A five year plan for digitisation by Police Scotland features real-time biometrics analytics, body-worn video cameras and other advanced technologies.
The plan was presented to the Scottish Police Authority Board, ahead of its expected approval. It includes the adoption of augmented reality, digital identity and access management, and digital evidence sharing capabilities. A modality for the real-time biometrics capability is not specified, but the document notes DNA and fingerprints among the current technologies the strategy is intended to compliment.
The use of body worn video cameras is expected to increase public trust, as 85 percent of respondents in a public consultation told Police Scotland that they would do so.
Spain
Identity verification company Veridas has joined non-profit organisation Open Identity Exchange (OIX).
The news comes as the Spain-headquartered company is ramping up efforts for expansion after receiving a $16.5 million investment from its partners with a goal to take a top-three position in the global identity market within the next five years. As part of this plan, Veridas brought on a new general manager for North America last month.
In its announcement, Veridas says that joining the OIX community will enable it to collaborate with the organisation’s global network, exchanging knowledge and best practices. The company has clients in 25 countries.
United States
Account takeover and fraud prevention company SpyCloud on Wednesday announced that it has raised $110 million in a funding round led by Riverwood Capital.
Previously, the company raised more than $58 million in four funding rounds, including $30 million in a Series C round in 2020.
Founded in 2016, the Austin, Texas-based company maintains a database of compromised assets and relies on the analysis of dark web data to identify and remediate exposed authentication and identity information.
The new investment will help SpyCloud accelerate product innovation, release authentication bypass prevention solutions, expand its database of exposed assets, and improve its analytic capabilities.
Additionally, the company plans to invest in its go-to-market efforts by hiring new talent, and to expand its list of integrators.
United States
The United States Justice Department has approved the sale of identity and access management leader ForgeRock to Thoma Bravo for $2.3 billion, paving the way for the private equity firm to merge it with previous acquisition Ping Identity.
The wording of the announcement appears to indicate that the Ping brand will remain.
The government had been rumored to be considering blocking the deal on anti-competition grounds. The consolidation brings together two of the largest competitors in the IAM market, at a combined cost of $5.1 billion. Thoma Bravo also owns digital identity security company Imprivata and cybersecurity company SailPoint.
The companies met with Justice Department officials and extended a review deadline from August 22, Bloomberg reports.
Philippines
The Philippines government says it wants to focus more on issuing the digital version of the PhilID, while physical cards are distributed later, according to a press release from the office of the President.
This is a change of strategy, the Secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Arsenio Balisacan explained at a recent press briefing, saying the reason is to enable people with smartphones use a digital ID to access service, even before they lay hands on their printed cards.
The development comes as President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has called for the digital ID system to be centralized so that it can connect all government agencies.
According to Balisacan, the Department of Information and Communication technology (DICT) will oversee the issuance of the digital IDs, while the competence for producing and distributing physical PhilID cards stays with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
United Kingdom / United States
London-based Xalient has acquired Integral Partners, a US-based digital identity consulting and advisory firm with over a decade of experience in IAM.
The acquisition adds Integral’s consulting and advisory competencies around digital identity to Xalient’s portfolio of zero-trust solutions and AI-powered managed services that span cybersecurity, software-defined networking, and communications.
Sherry Vaswani, Founder and CEO at Xalient comments “We are joining forces to create a unique blend of identity, security, and networking expertise in a specialist services company. We see great synergies, in terms of strengthening our position in the digital identity segment while enriching our existing offer to customers. There is a strong cultural fit between both companies that will help drive value for our customers and employees in both the short and the long term.”
United Kingdom
Research from digital identity security firm ID Crypt Global reveals that cash is no longer king as members of Generation Z choose to rely on their digital wallet and digital identity instead of older, outdated formats.
ID Crypt has commissioned a survey of 1,000 members of Gen Z (under-25 years old) to gain insight into what the future of payment and identity verification holds. The results demonstrate a strong rejection of physical ID and money, usurped by the rise of digital alternatives.
When asked how often they use a physical ID to prove their identity on a weekly basis, more than 70 percent responded either ‘never’ or ‘occasionally’, with just 30 percent saying ‘often’ or ‘always’.
Ninety-four percent said they use their digital ID to prove their identity either ‘always’ or ‘often’.
More than 40 percent say they would like to see important documents such as birth certificates, passports, and driving licences moved onto a fully digital format.
United Kingdom
The Citizen’s Biometrics Council of the Ada Lovelace Institute says the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has made a good start in establishing guidance for the use of biometrics, but needs to work on enforcement, and may need legislative help.
The council was asked for its views on the ICO’s proposal for guidance and regulation of biometric data use by Ada Lovelace, the ICO, and social research firm Hopkins Van Mil in late-2022. There are 30 people from diverse demographic groups and backgrounds who represented the council in presentations from the ICO and crafting feedback.
Overall, the council felt the ICO has made significant progress towards addressing the concerns and recommendations it shared in 2021 as a companion to the Ryder Review. Council members questioned how effective enforcement would be, and suggested new laws specific to biometrics may be needed. They also noted low public awareness of how biometrics are used, and the ICO’s role. Though consent is addressed in the ICO’s guidance, it remains an area of concern for some council members.
China
China’s telecom operator, China Mobile, has pitched a digital identity system to regulate the metaverse.
According to Politico, China’s digital identity system for the metaverse has similarities with its social credit system. The digital identity system would be designed to collect the user’s personal data, like their occupations, identifiable signs, and other such data.
Moreover, China Mobile has suggested that law enforcement permanently store this data to maintain a safe environment in the metaverse. It believes that personal data could aid police in investigating bad actors in the virtual world.
Vietnam
Vietnam’s e-contract platform is gaining popularity thanks to the widespread adoption of the country’s national ID cards, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
The Vietnam Electronic Contract Development Axis was launched in 2022 to enable online attestation, authentication and lookups for business contracts. The platform is run by CeCA (Certified e-Contract Authority), an electronic contract certification organization under MoIT’s Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy.
The country’s chip-based ID cards have been successfully used for authentication on the portal while the Ministry of Industry and Trade plans to continue working with the Ministry of Public Security on connecting and sharing data, Vietnam Plus reports.
Vietnam started issuing chip-based ID cards in 2021. The government is also ramping up efforts to scale its digital ID system. The country’s draft Law on Citizen Identification aims to integrate more citizen data into the National Database on Population. This will allow citizens to access both public and private services by using ID cards and the National e-Identification Application (VNeID). The draft law is expected to be issued in October 2023 and will take effect on July 1, 2024, as per Biometric Update.
United Kingdom
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is working on a roadmap to reduce carbon emissions from the use of the One Login service.
GDS director of digital identity, Natalie Jones, said it has already developed a baseline and is now considering ways to monitor and manage the emissions. She said one of the aims is to make it one of the most environmentally sustainable digital services in government.
GDS has developed a baseline from the page weights and app sizes of One Login – which are relatively low in comparison to other services – and is starting to build a roadmap of activities to reduce carbon emissions, and put in place better monitoring tools, as per a blog post.
Among the possibilities under consideration are to host assets such as images and fonts on a shared domain so the user only has to download them once, and minimising data storage by removing some unused cloud assets and implementing better data classification.
Jones said that One Login’s annual emissions are currently around 200 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, but this is expected to increase into the thousands as it is more widely used.
