Australia
Former New South Wales Digital Minister Victor Dominello says paper and plastic credentials were “designed for the last century”.
There are growing concerns about how the specialist information taken as part of the NSW pubs and club data breach may be misused. Seventeen venues around the state are believed to have been impacted by the breach.
Dominello told Sky News Australia physical forms of ID are “clearly not fit for purpose” in a digital age.
“We have to be more modern and smarter in the way we deal with our personal information, via a digital ID,” he said.
United States
1Kosmos has expanded its offerings for the identity verification and passwordless market with the introduction of a new Credential Service Provider (CSP) managed service based on the privacy-by-design 1Kosmos platform.
The 1Kosmos CSP offering enables government agencies to offer residents who are requesting services a way to simultaneously digitally verify their identity up to certified NIST Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) and then issues a = phishing-resistant, multi-factor authentication (MFA) credential, up to certified NIST Authentication Assurance Level 2 (AAL2).
“Virtually every government agency at the federal, state, tribal, and local level is modernizing resident services which all require immutable digital identity verification,” said Hemen Vimadalal, CEO of 1Kosmos. “With the 1Kosmos CSP service, we are providing the government sector with a low friction, intuitive and user-directed way to enroll and verify their identity that meets the highest assurance level standards available today.”
1Kosmos is working to achieve an Authority to Operate (ATO) under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). FedRAMP is a government-wide programme that promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the federal government by providing a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.
Global
Prove Identity has released figures that show 1 out of 2 adults in the U.S. were seen on the company’s platform and nearly 47 million new accounts were opened with the support of the Prove Pre-Fill onboarding solution in 2023. Prove said it helped to create nearly $2 billion in net new revenue in the economy, which is a 20 percent increase from 2022 to 2023. The company expects a significant increase in those metrics for 2024.
Prove also recently partnered with several major financial services, gaming, and cryptocurrency providers, including Fanduel, Visa, Elo, and others.
Global
Similarly, AU10TIX said it has protected companies against more than $18 billion in business fraud since the 2021 launch of its Serial Fraud Monitor (formerly INSTINCT). This solution, along with the company’s IDV (Identity Verification) Suite.
In the payments sector, AU10TIX’s solutions have prevented over $13 billion in fraudulent transactions. Other impacted sectors include cryptocurrency and trading , banking, and shared economy. In Q1 of 2024, AU10TIX said it has already prevented more than $1.3 billion in fraud.
United States
Semperis has announced the release of Lightning Identity Runtime Protection (IRP), a new identity threat detection and response (ITDR) offering that uses machine learning models developed by identity security experts to detect attack patterns such as password spray, credential stuffing, other brute force attacks, and risky anomalies. The first offering in the Semperis Lightning platform, IRP brings critical identity context to attack pattern and anomaly detection, helping organisations spot and quickly respond to high-risk events.
Known identity attack patterns like password spraying continue to be extremely successful because of the difficulty in detecting and responding to the sheer signal volume and noise. The company saud Lightning IRP detects sophisticated identity attacks that traditional ML solutions miss. It focuses defenders on the most critical identity attack alerts and reduces noise by layering in an identity-risk fabric that draws insights from multiple sources.
Poland
Signicat has announced its status as the first international aggregator to integrate mojeID Poland into its digital identity portfolio. This is the first time that a non-Polish intermediary offers mojeID Poland directly, without the intervention of third parties.
Ninety-eight percent of electronic banking users in Poland utilize mojeID Poland. This means that the authentication of a Polish individual’s identity is facilitated through their bank details, guaranteeing a high level of security and safeguarding data integrity.
Offering two levels of assurance—low and substantial—mojeID Poland facilitates both the initial identity verification and subsequent user authentication, fully compliant with local Anti-Money Laundering regulations and eIDAS, the European regulation governing electronic identity verification methods.
Finland
The Ministry of Finance has set up a project to guide the implementation of a national digital identity wallet. The Digital and Population Data Services Agency will be responsible for the technical implementation.
Earlier this spring, the European Parliament and the Council adopted the revised eIDAS Regulation, which regulates cross-border electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions. In future, the Regulation will also regulate European Digital Identity Wallets. The revised eIDAS Regulation will enter into force in May, and the technical implementing acts will be adopted over the following six months.
Nigeria
Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is working with the Nigerian federal government on an identity technology platform for easy tax collection.
According to a statement, Gates said the technology would help with payment efficiency and also make tax collection easier.
“We are working with Mr. Wale Edun, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, on digitisation,” Gates said.
“Before you came into office, there were a few things attempted in identity management. But they have been very scattered. There have been multiple identification systems.
“Now, there is a plan to take that technology called MOSIP and use it for this identification platform so that people can get digital benefits. We are providing support for that, and we can provide more support.
“With MOSIP ID, there is potential application in all government payment programmes.”
Estonia
Estonia is keeping its physical identity cards until the creation of the European Union Digital Identity (EUDI) wallet.
In January, the Estonian Ministry of Interior proposed making ID cards optional as more citizens rely on the country’s multiple digital solutions. The proposal, however, has been met with resistance within the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MKM).
Estonians are legally obligated to have an ID card while digital IDs are still voluntary. Passports are also not mandatory. This means that If the requirement for an ID card is lifted, some residents could end up with no ID at all, Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) reports.
Some of Estonia’s digital identity credentials, however, will become obsolete. Once the EU finalizes regulations for online identifications and transactions, the country’s Mobile-ID will no longer be able to be used for digital signatures. This, alongside Smart-ID, is one of the two alternative ID methods to the ID card offered in Estonia.
Canada
ATB Ventures’ digital identity verification platform Oliu has become the first Canadian organisation to achieve official certification from the Digital ID and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC).
The certification is granted by a recognisable coalition of private and public sector leaders that participates in delivering their digital trust framework to the wider industry.
Global
Market research outlet Liminal has released a report that forecasts rapid growth in the Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) market, rising from $6.2 billion in 2024 to a projected $10.8 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7 percent. The growth is caused by industry changes like vendor consolidation and the demand for more seamless but effective security measures.
One major challenge for the market is fragmented and unreliable identity data, making it difficult to achieve data privacy compliance and producing inconsistent user experiences across different platforms.
Australia
Mastercard has expanded the testing process of its digital identity service, ID, at Australia Post and Deakin University.
This latest pilot test builds on the earlier evaluations performed at Deakin University. It is now being explored as to how Mastercard’s ID can securely connect and integrate with services from other providers like Australia Post’s Digital iD. The pilot test involved students to create a digital identity on Australia Post’s Digital iD app and use it to gain access to Deakin University’s exam portal.
In November, Mastercard entered into an agreement to provide its digital identity to Optus, the second largest provider of telecoms services in Australia. It also partnered with The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia to design a new national digital identity service to help advance the country’s digital economy aspirations.
