Europe
Ubiqu has partnered with Thales to launch a combined solution that brings together Ubiqu’s Remote Secure Element (RSE) technology with Thales Luna hardware security modules to support organisations building certified wallet infrastructure.
The companies say the offering simplifies deployment of European Digital Identity wallets by providing a ready-to-use, compliant environment that can help businesses become Qualified Trust Service Providers under eIDAS 2.0 within months. The solution is positioned as sovereign infrastructure for secure digital identification across EU member states.
The joint stack is built on validated HSM foundations and is designed to meet high-assurance regulatory requirements, with flexible deployment across cloud, hybrid and on-premises environments. The partners also highlight open-source compatibility and integration paths with commonly used wallet implementations, including the EU Reference Wallet.
Spain
Telefónica’s digital unit has also introduced a verifiable-credentials solution aimed at helping businesses and public bodies adopt self-sovereign identity approaches aligned with the EU’s emerging wallet framework. The offering is positioned to support issuing, verifying and revoking credentials via QR-code based flows, with use cases including civil registration, driving licences, age verification and fraud reduction.
Global
A World Economic Forum-hosted Cybercrime Atlas initiative is warning that deepfake tools are increasingly being used to bypass remote identity checks and KYC controls. New research argues that face-swapping and related techniques are creating systemic risks for institutions reliant on digital trust, reinforcing the need for stronger verification and cross-sector collaboration.
United States
A US Department of Homeland Security study suggests the Open Source Face Image Quality (OFIQ) tool offers limited value for DHS operational facial biometric use cases.
Researchers evaluated OFIQ across 16 commercial facial recognition systems and found its unified quality score did not reliably predict matching outcomes, often rating images as very low quality even when systems matched them with high accuracy. The study also found OFIQ’s quality filtering did not meaningfully reduce error rates, and that recapturing images to improve quality sometimes delivered little benefit relative to the time and resources required.
Despite the findings, the researchers noted OFIQ may still be useful for selecting the best image from multiple candidates. A second version of the tool is already in development and is expected in 2027.
Bahrain
CFI Financial has become the first investment platform in Bahrain to go live with eKey for Business, the country’s biometric digital identity and eKYC platform for the private sector.
The integration enables fully digital onboarding using 3D facial biometrics and is positioned to eliminate passwords, OTPs and manual document uploads. Beyon Connect says the approach is consent-based and aligned with national digital identity infrastructure, with compliance claims tied to local KYC and data protection requirements.
Congo
Trident Digital Tech Holdings has signed a preliminary collaboration agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Post, Telecommunications and Digital Affairs to support a national digital identity and e-government initiative.
The partnership will establish a framework for collecting and analysing requirements to design a secure solution adapted to the DRC market, with planned deliverables including encryption, multi-factor authentication and secure transmission channels. Trident also says interoperability across sectors such as banking, healthcare, telecoms and tax is a key objective.
United Arab Emirates
emaratech and Paravision have partnered to deliver the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs–Dubai Red Carpet Smart Corridor at Dubai International Airport.
The corridor enables passengers to pass through immigration without presenting travel documents, using face recognition for identity verification. The partners say the system is designed for high-throughput environments, performs across diverse demographics and is deployed on emaratech’s infrastructure to maintain operational control, uptime and privacy protections.
Aruba
Enhanced Passenger Processing is now live at Aruba’s US Pre-Clearance facility through a partnership between Aruba Airport Authority, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and iProov.
The system verifies travellers via a facial biometric scan that matches a passenger to passport biometrics and the US government’s traveller verification services, reducing the need to present a physical passport unless additional review is required. The rollout is positioned as a way to shorten queues and improve passenger flow for US citizens departing Aruba.
United Kingdom
Trend Micro has warned that accelerating AI adoption across the UK public sector could introduce new cyber risks if digital maturity and controls do not keep pace.
The company argues that uneven AI literacy can drive misclassification of data and “shadow AI” usage, increasing the risk of sensitive information leaking into external tools. It also points to blind spots created by legacy systems and fragmented monitoring, which can be exacerbated by poor identity hygiene and over-privileged accounts.
Trend Micro is urging public bodies to strengthen governance and embed zero-trust controls such as phishing-resistant MFA, visibility into AI workflows and reliable offline backups to support safer AI-enabled digital transformation.
Global
Sumsub has joined the World Economic Forum’s Unicorn Community and will participate in the 2026 Annual Meeting in Davos, focusing on digital trust, AI-driven fraud and inclusive access to digital services.
The company says identity fraud is becoming more sophisticated and increasingly multi-step across the customer lifecycle, requiring continuous, real-time protection. Sumsub is concentrating on countering deepfakes, synthetic identities and coordinated fraud operations, while also promoting verification approaches that reduce onboarding barriers in markets with weaker documentation.
Global
Delinea has signed a definitive agreement to acquire StrongDM, combining privileged access management with just-in-time runtime authorization for modern DevOps and AI-driven environments.
The combined platform is positioned to enforce least-privilege access at the moment of action and support a transition toward zero standing privilege, without requiring organisations to replace existing privileged access management investments.
Global
One Identity has released a major upgrade to One Identity Manager, introducing enhanced risk-based governance, identity threat detection and response playbooks, and AI-assisted insights.
The update includes a browser-based administrative interface, improved interoperability with security monitoring tools, and automated remediation workflows designed to reduce the time between identity threat detection and response.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan continues to scale its biometric digital signature app, SİMA Imza, which combines public key cryptography with face biometrics to support document signing and secure online transactions.
The government-backed service is free for citizens and supports onboarding through ID scanning and selfie-based biometric checks. New features include delegated signing authority via QR codes, as the platform expands its role across public and private sector services.
