Trust frameworks and biometrics innovation to boost financial inclusion and digital ID adoption

Digital trust frameworks and financial inclusion efforts are prominent among the most widely-read digital ID stories of the week on Biometric Update, which include the role of Trust Stamp’s biometric technology in a partnership with Mastercard and Paycode, while Identity Week was held in London. The sector’s investment hot streak continued with Forgerock’s IPO, Neustar’s acquisition by TransUnion, and JumpCloud’s Series F, and representatives of Open Identity Exchange and Boku shared their insights with readers.

Top biometrics news of the week

Forgerock leads this week’s round of funding success stories, with a $275 million IPO, which was followed by a stock price spike giving the company a $2.8 billion valuation. TransUnion acquired Neustar for $3.1 billion to integrate the latter’s digital identity resolution technology, and Jumpcloud’s $159 million Series F further extends the digital identity splurge.

A new report implicates a group linked to the Chinese government in cybersecurity attacks on India, including apparent attempts to breach the world’s largest digital ID system, Aadhaar. The hacker group appears to have targeted personally identifying information or biometric data, among other targets, but may not have succeeded in stealing any.

Biometrics and ID banks are both tools most people would be interested in using to increase financial inclusion among people in precarious housing situations, according to a report from a pair of Canadian organizations. They surveyed 157 people from two Maritime Provinces and considered the options, and found that while people may be more likely to use biometrics than ID banks, the cost difference makes the latter more realistic.

Trust Stamp has been revealed as a partner in the Mastercard-Paycode initiative to deliver biometric payment cards that can be used for identification in addition to authentication. The cards are also different from most biometric cards seen so far in that they contain embedded cryptographic tokens based on their face and palm biometrics and Trust Stamp’s proprietary technology.

The Digital Identities Design and Uses project has been launched to track and evaluate projects across Africa. The Centre for Internet and Society and Omidyar-backed project, in collaboration with Research ICT Africa will collect legal governance and design details on the digital identity efforts of ten countries.

Identity Week 2021 London marks the return of Biometric Update to live events, as well as the unveiling of the next step in the UK GDS’ digital identity plan, which includes a single sign-on for all government services. The importance of trust frameworks and their market-boosting potential was explored by representatives from Digi.me and tScheme.

Open Identity Exchange (OIX) Chief Identity Strategist Nick Mothershaw explores digital ID adoption in terms of barriers, key drivers and the need for user education. The wave of online fraud has laid the problem bare, but trust frameworks represent another opportunity to guide organizations in making urgently needed changes.

SIM swap fraud is on the rise, and Boku General Manager for Identity Stuart Neal explains the attack vector in a Biometric Update guest post, how to tell if you’ve been victimized and why strong identity verification is a necessary defense. Common two-factor authentication methods like one-time passwords are useless against this kind of account takeover.

A new report indicates that facial recognition systems are still susceptible to adversarial attacks with makeup, with crafted “natural” makeup reducing the number of frames study participants could be identified in from over 47 percent to less than 2 percent. A key finding is that with “random” natural makeup, the biometric system identified the participant in over 33 percent of frames.

The FBI’s Next-Generation Identification system serves more than 35,000 agencies and organizations with biometric matches in more modalities in less time, as CJIS Acting Assistant Section Chief Gary Stroupe told a Security Industry Association webinar audience. The agency has also launched a new engagement program through which CJIS has already met with well over 100 companies this year.

Hamburg’s “Facebook Hunter,” Data Protection Commissioner Johannes Caspar reached the end of his second term in June, 2021, after tangling with Clearview, Pimeyes and other biometrics providers in his 2 years on the job.  As reported by Wired, Caspar was considered one of the world’s most active data protection officials, but his lasting legacy may be demonstrating the need for a central European data protection authority.

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Article Topics

biometric cards  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  financial inclusion  |  financial services  |  identity verification  |  law enforcement  |  national ID  |  trust framework  |  week in review