Malaysia
Malaysian Cyber Consumer Association (MCCA) chairman Ahmad Noordin Ismail has said the digital ID could reduce bureaucracy and optimise the impact of government subsidies by aiding in the efficient distribution of assistance to target groups more accurately and effectively.
“This is highly beneficial in the context of providing financial aid or government subsidies. It ensures targeted aid is provided more quickly and alleviates the people’s struggles in accessing the benefits they deserve,” he said.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim previously said that the government won’t force anyone to register with the digital ID for now but encouraged all civil servants to do so as the Rahmah Cash Aid (STR) and all forms of targeted subsidies will be channelled through the digital ID.
France
Thales has completed the acquisition of Imperva. Imperva is Thales’ ninth acquisition in the digital security area over the last nine years, and the second largest in the Group’s history after Gemalto. Among its solutions, Imperva brings Identity & Access Management, including the OneWelcome Identity Platform and SafeNet Trusted Access.
Australia
Legislation has been presented before the Senate that aims to “strengthen and expand Australia’s Digital ID System” and could speed up the loan process.
On Thursday 30 November, the Digital ID Bill 2023 was introduced to Senate, putting in place the legislative framework to create an “economy-wide Digital ID System” in Australia.
The bill aims to strengthen an accreditation scheme for Digital ID service providers, as well as enable the expansion of the Australian government Digital ID System to states and territories and subsequently the private sector.
It allows people to verify their ID when interacting online without having to repeatedly provide copies of their documents such as passports, birth certificates, and driver licences.
Papua New Guinea
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) of Papua New Guinea has issued a Request for Information (RFI) for its national digital ID project, along with six others touching on the country’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) development, reports Biometric Update.
The RFIs are being solicited within the framework of the country’s Digital Government Act 2022 and the GovPNG Technology Stack.
Other than the digital ID ecosystem, the other areas to be covered by the RFI include digital government portal solutions, internet payment gateway solutions, interoperability (a secure data exchange platform), a national cyber coordinating center (N3C), and a national cyber security center (NCSC).
United Kingdom
Websites showing pornographic content may have to use credit card checks and photo ID matching to confirm users are over 18, as part of the Online Safety Act.
Regulator Ofcom has published draft guidance for platforms on how to protect children from pornography to ensure firms comply with the new internet laws.
The recommendations include photo ID matching – where an uploaded document such as a passport is compared with an image taken at that moment.
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Users could also sign up to digital identity wallets where their proof of age is stored digitally and can be shared with the online pornography service.
However, the regulator said certain approaches would not meet its new standards, including self-declaration of age, online payment methods which do not require a person to be 18, such as a debit card, or general terms, disclaimers or warnings about content.
India
The Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) has achieved a new landmark in its efforts to support non-proprietary digital ID ecosystem initiatives around the world as the Indian firm says more than 100 million digital and civil identities based on its open-source software have now been issued in all partner countries.
The platform is at various stages of adoption and implementation in 11 countries in Africa and Asia.
Germany
Deutsche Telekom and Bielefeld University are partnering for the self-sovereign access management (SESAM) university cooperation project in which experts from Deutsche Telekom and T-Labs, the company’s research and development team, introduced concepts pertaining to digital identity and self-sovereign identity (SSI) to over 100 IT students at the university.
The SESAM project focuses on improving access control to efficiently manage office spaces shared between multiple companies. SSIs make it possible to share only required information from the ID in order to grant access.
Global
HireRight Holdings Corporation, a provider of global background screening services and workforce solutions, has launched a new global identity verification solution, Global ID.
The service includes the ability to verify a candidate’s identity in addition to their identity document through Global ID’s optional digital Liveness and Biometric Face Match feature. This allows the identity verification process to be conducted entirely remotely by the candidate, without them needing to present their ID in person to their prospective employer.
Europe
The Council of the European Union has introduced changes to a proposed package of legislation to establish a legal basis for issuing mobile driver’s licences into European Digital Identity Wallets.
The original pair of proposals came from the EU Commission, as part of a “road safety package.” The package includes a complete overhaul of the EU’s Directive on Driving Licences, according to report from the Council’s General Secretariat on the proposed amendments.
Changes to the proposal include the alignment of the technical elements of mDLs with the revised eIDAS digital identity regulation. The Council also wants a stronger link between implementing acts and member states’ obligations.
Middle East, Africa, and Latin America
IDEX Biometrics and Toppan Gravity are set to introduce biometric cards, integrating the advanced IDEX Pay fingerprint authentication payment solution.
The partnership aims to address the increasing demand for reliable and user-friendly payment options. Toppan Gravity serves a range of clients, including more than 500 banks, governments, and corporations globally. The introduction of biometric smart cards is set to elevate Toppan Gravity’s offerings in banking and identity solutions, particularly in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America regions. An initial order for IDEX Pay has been placed, marking the first phase of the product’s journey to the market, expected by the first quarter of 2024.
