Estonia
Tallinn-based Cybernetica has submitted the minimum viable product (MVP) for Estonia’s national digital identity wallet to the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA).
Estonia’s digital ID wallet app has been in development since January, according to the announcement, following an analysis of the country’s digital identity system by Cybernetica in the latter part of last year. The company is also in the midst of a three-year consultancy with EU cybersecurity agency ENISA on digital wallets and eIDAS.
The work on Estonia’s digital wallet is being carried out under a four-year, 6 million euro contract.
Key functionalities delivered by the digital wallet MVP include the presentation of proof of ID or a driver’s licence, issuance of personal identity data directly to the wallet app without reference to a physical ID card, and selective disclosure of attributes, which allows for example proof of age of majority without sharing additional information.
DR Congo
The biometric national ID card project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is facing possible cancellation due to allegations of financial irregularities.
The $697 million contract, awarded to a consortium including Afritech and the France-based multinational IDEMIA, is under investigation by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Inspectorate General of Finance (IDF), according to TechPoint Africa.
The scrutiny follows accusations of overbilling and has led to travel restrictions for Afritech founder Samba Bathily.
The biometric ID initiative, launched last year ahead of national elections, aimed to establish a new population register and a biometric ID system. Prior attempts to issue identity cards in DR Congo date back to between 1984 and 1987, with the process remaining incomplete until this recent effort.
The World Bank was initially expected to fund the project in installments, a plan that eventually fell through, causing delays. Despite these setbacks, DR Congo had decided to proceed with the project, selecting IDEMIA from a list of multiple major biometric and digital ID companies, including Thales and Veridos, which competed for the contract to produce next-generation ID cards.
Separately, Pangea, an Israeli firm, secured a $70 million contract in 2022 to provide an automated biometric identification system for law enforcement, while German company Dermalog won a $48 million contract to produce biometric passports for the country.
Ecuador
Worldcoin is introducing its World ID orb verification service in Ecuador.
The service allows individuals aged 18 and older to verify their World ID at designated locations, joining the existing network of nearly six million participants globally.
Ecuador joins other Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, in offering World ID orb verification services.
Belgium
Inetum in Belgium is expanding its Digital Identity offering with the Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution from Belgian company Elimity, helping organisations to reduce their cyber risk and with their NIS2, ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC and CIS audit compliance requirements.
Elimity focuses on compliance and analytics, and delivering insights for customers. It integrates with other Inetum offerings, such as Microsoft Entra ID, WSO2 Identity Manager, Evidian and Okta.
Fiji
The Fijian government is preparing a national digital ID programme, officials have announced. A National Digital Identification (ID) Programme was discussed in a recent Cabinet meeting, with the aim of enabling businesses to easily verify customer identities.
Speaking to domestic media after the meeting, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka explained that a “national ID card steering committee will be established to oversee the management, governance, legal and policy frameworks” for the programme.
“The first phase will see the introduction of electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) by the Reserve Bank of Fiji,” the Prime Minister added.
The National Digital Strategy would be built on GovStack, a platform championed by the ITU, the government of Estonia, and the Digital Impact Alliance to create a standardised, open-source digital government infrastructure. GovStack is meant to simplify and accelerate the digital transformation of public services by providing modular, reusable building blocks that can be implemented across various government functions.
United Kingdom
OneID has been recertified as an Identity Service Provider and Orchestration Service Provider under the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF).
The recertification sees OneID deemed a certified reusable ID provider. Repeat users will now have the option to allow OneID to link their details to their device. So, when they press the OneID button on a website, they won’t have to go through the bank authentication journey. OneID will reuse their details to verify their identity.
It is also certified for new GPG45 profiles, including Very High Confidence levels, the highest level of identity assurance as per UK Government guidelines
The Good Practice Guide (GPG) 45 is government-issued guidance on how to prove someone’s identity. Depending on the combination of evidence provided by an individual, identities are verified to one of 32 different GPG45 ‘profiles’, which are grouped into four different ‘levels of confidence’ or certainty; Low, Medium, High and Very High.
Germany
VeriGO has launched MobileID to enable users to carry all their important ID documents wherever they go. Government authorities can now offer citizens a way to manage all government documents on their smartphones. The goal is to create a new level of security for public and private use cases through efficient and digital verification processes, said the company.
VeriGO MobileID’s technology relies on unique encryption processes to authenticate documentation. The application requires only a smartphone or tablet and is not dependent on an internet connection. With VeriGO MobileID, users can store all forms of traditional physical ID documents such as driver’s licences, health insurance cards or ID cards in a secure environment. Citizens are free to decide the private data they want to share, when and with whom. For example, if only proof of age is required, the rest of the ID, including address and other information, can remain private.
Vietnam
Vietnam is set to implement the Law on Identity, marking a shift from the previous 2014 Law on Citizen Identification, which was last revised in 2020. This new legislation aims to enhance the efficiency of administrative procedures, facilitate the provision of online public services, drive socio-economic development, and establish a digital citizen identification system. From July 1, iris biometric details will be collected with fingerprints and facial images when citizens apply for an ID card, SGGP reports.
Global
UK firm IDVerse has launched of Proof of Address, initially in beta, which is designed to revolutionise text extraction and fraud prevention on utility-bill-style documents for businesses worldwide.
IDVerse’s Proof of Address (POA) is a proprietary product that captures document-based evidence and verifies the validity of a customer’s current residential address. The new product is 100 percent automated with enhanced error handling to lower the burden on manual teams and ensure users benefit from higher conversion rates. This automation not only enhances efficiency but also significantly improves customer satisfaction by reducing input errors and streamlining the process through the autofill of form data, said the company.
Global
Thales has announced Passwordless 360°, a new concept for passwordless authentication. Passwordless 360° allows companies use the latest technologies like FIDO passkeys, while also making the most of previous investments they might have made in passwordless technologies, said the company.
United Kingdom
Payments solutions provider allpay has announced a new partnership with issuer processing company Enfuce. The collaboration aims to integrate secure cloud-based card payment solutions into UK public sector services, including local councils.
allpay offers payment solutions such as direct debit, internet, credit, debit, cash, and prepaid cards. By incorporating Enfuce’s cloud-based technology, allpay can deliver more secure and reliable fund disbursement with uptimes for UK public services, it said.
Through the partnership, allpay will gain access to Enfuce’s fraud and dispute management expertise, enabling prevention measures to minimise fraud and compliance risks.
