United States
KYC, AML and age verification provider Veratad has launched a reusable identity feature created to complement the company’s existing verification methods, which include biometrics, age estimation, identity data verification, and ID document verification.
IDMax is available for its age and identity verification orchestration platform Veratad VX and can help businesses accept third-party reusable digital identity credentials. Veratad also offers fraud prevention and compliance products.
The company says that IDMax will make customer onboarding more efficient and flexible. The new addition will also enable customers to incorporate reusable digital identity credentials.
Australia
Poker machine venues want to be exempt from any legislation which introduces caps for the storage of biometric data.
A lobby group in Australia has sided with venues insisting that tighter controls will be unnecessary as facial verification is reducing the harms of gaming for players.
The standardisation of laws permitting biometrics to be used or stored within a time period before destruction is across the board. This protects the privacy interests of the person handing over their biometric information.
The federal government introduced the national digital identity scheme, which centres around privacy aims and protecting sensitive information.
Venues in Queensland and New South Wales are using the software. The government’s system will ultimately interact with centralised ID systems in each state to balance privacy, according to Identity Week.
Australia
Also in Australia, the body for the country’s $120 billion retail liquor industry has warned the federal government that smaller independent online merchants are being priced out of using digital identity to verify the age of prospective online purchasers, saying the technology may not be economically viable for some.
As draft legislation to enable the use of digital identity credentials is circulated across industry, key stakeholder Retail Drinks Australia has cautioned a paucity of digital identity providers and sky-high processing and integration costs could cause some booze retailers to ditch online sales.
Philippines
Digital identity authority PhilSys has developed authentication services to enable more secure transactions through biometrics and digital ID. The new PhilSys Check authenticates people through a digital signature embedded in the QR code found on the back of both the PhilID card and the ePhilID.
PhilSys Check operates as a website open to relying parties through computer or mobile device browsers.
Civil Registry System facilities in the Philippines’ National Capital Region have also implemented fingerprint biometric authentication to verify the identity of PhilID and ePhilID holders when they request civil registry documents.
Indonesia
The Indonesia government is targeting the digitalisation of all identity documents by June 2024 and is urging more than 200 million people to activate the country’s digital ID application on their smartphones.
It said Indonesia’s Identitas Kependudukan Digital or Digital Population Identity (IKD), commonly known as the Digital ID, will make public services more accessible to millions of Indonesians.
In addition, IKD will also increase the efficiency of public service administration processes. Population documents such as identity cards (KTP), family cards (KK), birth certificates and others can be accessed and verified instantly through this digital platform, reducing the time and cost required to obtain services.
Global
By 2026, attacks using AI-generated deepfakes on face biometrics will mean that 30 percent of enterprises will no longer consider such identity verification and authentication solutions to be reliable in isolation, according to Gartner.
“In the past decade, several inflection points in fields of AI have occurred that allow for the creation of synthetic images. These artificially generated images of real people’s faces, known as deepfakes, can be used by malicious actors to undermine biometric authentication or render it inefficient,” said Akif Khan, VP analyst at Gartner.
“As a result, organisations may begin to question the reliability of identity verification and authentication solutions, as they will not be able to tell whether the face of the person being verified is a live person or a deepfake.”
Global
Biometrics and digital ID titan Idemia has divided into three divisions: smart identity, biometrics for public security and secure payments.
According to a release, the three divisions, “each operating as leaders in their specific market segment,” are intended to enable agility and provide customer services that are more tailored to specific client needs, in the interest of unlocking value in parallel revenue streams.
Each division has its own leader. Idemia Secure Transactions (IST), which has a global workforce of approximately 10,000 employees across more than 50 countries, will have Philippe Oliva at the helm. Matthew Cole, previously EVP of Idemia’s public security and identity business unit, will lead Idemia Public Security (IPS), overseeing more than 3,800 employees. For Idemia Smart Identity (ISI), the firm has tapped its former VP of European operations for the public security and ID business unit, Antoine Grenier, who will oversee a team of 1,880 employees across 40 countries.
United Kingdom
Evrotrust has received an investment of €3.3 million from existing clients and private equity fund Silverline Capital. This is just a few months after Evrotrust got recognized as a notified eID scheme by the European Commission.
The company’s services are used by more than 1.3 million unique users from 58 countries, and 150 enterprises from 11 countries, among which are 15 of Europe’s leading banking institutions. The funds will be allocated to bolster Evrotrust’s international expansion and foster the development of a novel product— a digital identity wallet for citizens. This wallet will store personal documents such as identity cards, educational diplomas, and driving licenses, ensuring security and privacy for users, while promoting interoperability with various EU and US digital infrastructures.
Global
Microsoft has launched Face Check, a new facial recognition feature for its Entra Verified ID digital identity platform. Face Check allows businesses to match a user’s selfie to their government ID or employee credentials, providing an extra layer of security for sensitive operations like password resets or help desk access.
“Rather than compete with an overcrowded market, we’re partnering with leading verification providers to make it easy for businesses and developers to integrate world-class verification services (like government ID or legal entity verification) with minimal custom code,” said Ankur Patel, Microsoft’s partner product manager for Entra Verified ID, in an interview with VentureBeat.
Spain
Spanish mobile operators Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone are launching two new services designed to help developers tackle online fraud and protect the digital identities of mobile customers.
As part of the global GSMA Open Gateway initiative, the operators have announced the launch of two network API (Application Programmable Interface) services focused on improving digital security: Number Verification and SIM Swap. These APIs will allow developer teams and partners to create new intelligent layers of customer authentication, verification, and security within mobile phone networks. This will help businesses, such as financial institutions and online retailers, tackle identity fraud by enhancing user authentication and improving security.
United Kingdom / United States
Only three percent of Brits feel comfortable to share their personal information with social media companies, according to new research from Thales.
Citizens in the US were the most trusting of social media companies (10 percent).
Brits are the most distrusting nation when it comes to social media companies, with 26 percent going as far as to say that they would not be happy to share any personal information with these companies. This is compared to just 14 percent globally.
British consumers trust banks with their personal information the most, closely followed by healthcare.
United Kingdom
The Brits may have reason to be distrustful. Nearly two million may have had their identity stolen and used by fraudsters to open a financial account in 2023, according to FICO’s new Fraud, Identity and Digital Banking Report.
The analytics firm found that 4.3 percent of respondents had their identity abused in this way, which would equate to 1.9 million people if extrapolated to the adult UK population.
This represents a significant decrease from 2022, when 7.7 percent of respondents reported falling victim to ID theft to open financial accounts.
However, a further 5.4 percent of respondents think it is “probable” that their stolen identity has been used to open an account.
Global
Entrust has entered into discussions to acquire London-based Onfido, a vendor of cloud-based, AI-powered identity verification (IDV) technology.
With the acquisition, Entrust would add compliant AI/ML-based biometric and document IDV tech stack to its portfolio of identity solutions. Additionally, Entrust would have the opportunity to advance the use of biometric-based, highly phishing-resistant authentication in high-value transactions and signing events.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia is accepting bids to supply and install biometric registration kits for use in the country’s national digital ID program. The NIDP is also seeking an information system supplier for an encoding platform and associated client-side SDK toolkit, as per Biometric Update.
Bids to supply the biometric registration kits must include a proposal security of ETB 1.8 million ($35,000 USD). Submissions are due March 22, 2024. Those interested can get more information from reaching out to the project’s procurement specialists listed on the request for bids page.
Also posted is a request for proposals for the supply, installation, and configuration of the encoding platform and associated client-side SDK toolkit for the Ethiopian Digital ID ecosystem. The project should be completed within 16 weeks from the date of opening at the Ethiopian National ID headquarters in Addis Ababa.
