United States
Semperis has secured $125 million in growth financing from J. P. Morgan and Hercules Capital. It follows a $200 million Series C round in 2022 led by KKR.
Semperis said its identity system defence platform is used by large enterprises and government agencies to reduce the success rate of ransomware and other destructive attacks.
In addition, Semperis added three new executives to its C-suite, each with first-hand cybersecurity IPO and public company experience. Jeff Bray, chief financial officer, has led finance teams at cybersecurity vendors in the public and private markets, including Rapid7, Imprivata and Invicti Security. Mike DeGaetano, chief revenue officer, began his sales leadership career at Symantec and subsequently led teams at RSA, Zscaler pre- and post-IPO, Forcepoint and most recently at Broadcom. And Annabel Lewis, chief legal officer and corporate secretary, who has held executive positions at Trustwave, Singtel and Onapsis.
Global
SailPoint has launched a new AI-powered application onboarding capability which aims to address the common challenges faced by organisations in integrating numerous applications into their identity security solutions.
SailPoint said the onboarded capability, which will be implemented within SailPoint Identity Security Cloud, will streamline and automate the application integration process, providing faster time to value, improved security of business applications, and an enhanced user experience.
Europe
Signicat has announced a new feature in its MobileID product: Face Authentication. MobileID is Signicat’s flagship product for secure user authentication via mobile apps. This new addition is designed to enhance security and prevent fraud in the financial and regulated services sectors.
Signicat’s recent study ‘Battle Against AI-driven Identity Fraud’ claims that account takeover is the most common type of identity fraud in the financial sector across Europe. Similarly, deepfakes now constitute 6.5 percent of total fraud attempts, marking a increase of 2137 percent over the past three years.
Based on Machine Learning (ML), the Face Authentication feature performs a 3D Liveness Check and 3D Face Matching for each authentication attempt. The 3D Liveness Check verifies that a real person is present during the authentication process, effectively stopping fraudsters’ attempts to use photos, deepfake videos, or other spoofing methods. Simultaneously, the 3D Face Matching process compares a 3D FaceMap collected during the current authentication with the one collected during the initial activation of the feature, ensuring a match.
Bangladesh
Relief Validation, a joint venture of Veridos and DG Infotech, has been accredited by Bangladesh’s Controller of Certification Authorities (CCA) as one of the first providers of legally valid e-signatures.
Relief Validation enables citizens, companies and institutions in Bangladesh to use e-signatures that are equivalent to traditional handwritten signatures on paper documents. One of Relief Validation’s first contractual partners is the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. It is using the company’s solution to issue electronically signed digital diplomas to its students.
United Kingdom
The UK government’s Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) urgently needs legal backing, according to trade association techUK. The group was responding to HM Treasury’s (HMT’s) consultation on enhancing the Kingdom’s anti-money laundering regulations, reports Biometric Update.
HMT launched a consultation to improve the effectiveness of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.
In its response, techUK’s key recommendations from techUK include strengthening understanding of digital ID, reference to the trust framework in AML regulations, enshrine the trust framework in law and governance by the trust framework.
techUK says HMT should explicitly incorporate the DSIT Trust Framework for digital ID into the regulations, and should work with DSIT to ensure the Trust Framework is urgently enshrined in law.
Kenya
Kenya has allocated $117 million for different digital activities, including include the processing of digital IDs and passports as per a government plan discussed in May.
The ministry said the budget will ensure the “digitization of citizen services designed to streamline and shorten waiting times and make government services more accessible through digital platforms.”
Canada
The government of Ontario has put work on a digital ID for the Canadian province on hold, citing political concerns.
An “insider” reportedly associated with the governing Progressive Conservative party told the Toronto Star that the digital ID project is “now on the back burner.” The report indicates that a substantial base of Progressive Conservative voters are strongly opposed to the concept of digital IDs.
In 2022, the right-wing Ontario Party collected signatures for a petition aimed at preventing the launch of digital IDs in the province.
The office of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Minister Todd McCarthy said in a statement that “the government currently does not have an update on its digital strategy but will provide new information as soon as it becomes available.”
United States
Bipartisan legislation that would study the Transportation Security Administration’s use of digital identification systems is headed to the House floor.
During a House Homeland Security Committee markup on June 12, the panel’s members favorably advanced legislation that would require TSA to compile a report on how its acceptance of digital IDs impacts US homeland security.
Nine states currently offer mobile drivers licences that are interoperable with TSA’s Credential Authentication Technology, or CAT units, with 27 airports across the US now accepting the digital IDs.
Within 180 days of its passage, the bill would require TSA to submit a report to relevant congressional committees “describing the current state of digital identity ecosystems and the homeland security value of emerging digital identity ecosystems in the transportation sector.”
The report would need to include the benefits and risks of such technologies, as well as how the tools would “protect homeland security and increase the competitive advantage” of the US, reported Nextgov.
Norway
The Norwegian government has reportedly implemented a programme to make electronic IDs more accessible for foreign citizens. Currently, different electronic IDs have different security clearances, says the Local, with foreign residents, who are assigned a “d-number” rather than a fødselsnummer (birth number), typically unable to access digital logins with higher security clearances.
The Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance’s action plan outlines five goals to implement in a review process. The first is that “all relevant user groups must be able to easily obtain an eID at the security level they require,” even those without a birth number or a d-number.
Other goals and objectives include ensuring “secure, cost-effective and holistic” login for digital public services, developing specific frameworks for secure and effective solutions for eID for public employees, and coordination of eID development between sectors and levels of administration.
The current schedule has the first phase starting in 2024 with a security evaluation and the implementation of digital ID control as part of the solution.
Singapore
US-based Resecurity is rolling out its Digital Identity Protection (IDP) solution in Singapore. In response to the rising tide of data breaches and identity theft, Resecurity’s IDP is designed to help individuals and organisations in Singapore defend their digital identities against new and evolving cyber threats.
Australia
New South Wales’ decentralised digital identity programme is getting a cash infusion from the Premier Chris Minns’ government, which has allocated $21.4 million in new funding for digital ID in its latest budget. InnovationAus reports that the money is expected to land next financial year.
Japan
Japan’s big three banks, MUFG, SMBC and Mizuho are collaborating on a digital identity solution with two regional banks Fukuoka Financial and Shizuoka.
The aim is for individuals to store data such as their name, address, date of birth and perhaps a driver’s licence on their mobile phones as a credential that they can share. DLT ensures that the content has not been tampered with.
The solution is to be trialled later this year and potentially launch next year, according to Ledger Insights.
Austria
Austria’s digital ID wallet app can now hold fully digital proof of identity, as Youniqx Identity, a subsidiary of the Austrian State Printing House (OSD), adds digital identity card compatibility to its e-ID app. Digital IDs join mobile driver’s licences, registration certificates and proof of age among identity documents that can be stored on the Austrian digital ID wallet app, eAusweise.
The app-housed digital ID will be valid as a virtual identity card throughout the EU as of 2026. Austria will recogniSe the digital ID immediately, which means it can be used as legal proof of ID for both private use cases and for law enforcement. Government officials say this will speed up vehicle checks, as police will be able to scan app-generated QR codes for quick identity verification.
