Dermalog biometrics support Philippines drivers’ portal as government digital identity systems evolve

The new portal of the Philippines’ Land Transfer Office supported by biometrics from Dermalog has been launched to allow people to apply for a driver’s license, register a car or pay fees online.

With the portal’s launch, a range of services become available seven days a week and 24 hours a day by remote through the user’s computer, smartphone or tablet, and many fees have been eliminated. The Land Transfer Office (LTO) portal is combined with a Land Transport Management System (LTMS), which includes Dermalog’s ABIS for biometric face and fingerprint verification. Dermalog developed the portal and LTMS, along with a state-of-the-art data center in Manila with the capacity for 5 petabytes of data and more than 1 million transactions a day, according to the announcement.

The LTO expects significant time and cost efficiencies from the new system, which also supports easy integration of services from other Philippine government agencies.

A digital governance solution from Dermalog was rolled out at LTO’s Metro Manilla headquarters as part of the same partnership in February.

Technology providers and the consultancy EY say governments can increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy with biometric authentication, according to a report by bobsguide.

iProov SVP of Product Aarti Samani tells bobsguide that trust must be established on both sides for government digital transformation to be successful, but both sides can also benefit from such a change.

“We will start to see more and more cases where digitisation of public sector services will become important. Remember, millions of us are now used to working remotely, we are used to being in our own comfortable environments and still running our lives efficiently from there. There is now an expectation that services will not only be available online but that they will work seamlessly and be easy to use,” according to Samani.

Samani argues for cloud-based biometric approaches over device-based ones, on ground that devices lost, stolen, or compromised with malware can undermine biometric security or expose sensitive data.

Australia prepares to accredit businesses for digital ID system

Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency is planning a for a review to look into increasing the use of biometrics in its GovPass identity verification solution, InnovationAus reports. The DTA has also completed the framework and rules for private companies to be accredited to the digital identity ecosystem.

GovPass is made up of the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF), the exchange gateway, digital identity services and their providers, and the DTA is currently searching for a biometrics and security specialist, which three sellers have been invited to submit candidates for.

The fourth version of the TDIF was recently released by the DTA, and is now expected to remain unchanged for two years. The new version consists of 13 policies, and the agency is planning to hire a consultant to begin accrediting private businesses against its criteria. A trio of public sector entities have been approved so far, including Eftpos, the Department of Human Service, which will run the gateway, and the Australian Tax Office. The accreditation and identity proofing rules were expanded for the fourth version of the TDIF to include private companies, InnovationAus writes, including the privacy and security safeguards they must follow.

Accreditation is expected to take no more than a year. Companies must have a designated privacy officer and “privacy champion,” along with policies, a management plan, and annual awareness training for privacy, and conduct an independent privacy impact assessment. In the event of a cybersecurity or fraud incident or a policy breach, accreditation can be stripped.

According to the Digital Marketplace listing, “The DTA is seeking a suitably qualified consultant who can provide advice and assistance on accreditation activities and policy development. The government’s digital identity is a federated whole-of-economy solution and is a multi-agency initiative led by the DTA.”

The consultant will be expected to provide expert advice and assist in developing policy, overssing implementation and performance of some governance functions, in addition to the accreditation process. The contract is offered for three months, with potential extensions, and has been opened to three sellers, like the biometrics specialist position.

South Korea goes with private sector, U.S. expands login.gov

South Korea has discontinued its 21-year old online ID system with the passage of the Electronic Signature Act, which eliminates barriers between public and private digital certificates, and precipitates a competition between businesses to provide digital identity in the country, Korean publication Pulse writes.

Messenger service Kakao is considered the leader among three candidates to replace the legacy government system, according to the report. Kakao released its own digital authentication platform in 2017. Since then, it has accumulated 10 million users, and has been adopted by 100 entities.

Other candidates include Pass, an authentication service based on a six-digit PIN or biometrics, built by cybersecurity firm Aton and the three top mobile carriers in South Korea. The operators of that service say it has already topped 10 million users, and forecast it will reach 18 million by the end of the year. The other possibility is BankSign, a blockchain-based identification system used by commercial lenders, which was released in 2018.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is bringing authentication for 16 legacy systems under the login.gov system to make it easier for businesses to receive federal aid, FedScoop reports.

The change is enabled by COVID-19 response legislation, which cleared the service for authentication and identity verification of recipients of programs like the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program.

18F, which leads the login.gov project along with the U.S. Digital Service, is also considering adding a biometric liveness detection solution to the system to prevent fraud, and plans for the system to be certified to NIST’s Digital Identity Guidelines by the fall. Liveness technology has been considered for the service previously, but is reported to have been pulled after returning too many false positives.

The new solution will be certified through Kantara’s identity assurance framework.

According to FedScoop, login.gov is used for up to half a million authentications per day by 24 agencies.

Article Topics

Australia  |  authentication  |  biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  digital identity  |  identity verification  |  Philippines  |  South Korea  |  United States