STA Identity and Payments Summit stars mDLs but looks ahead to post-quantum future

The Secure Technology Alliance‘s 2025 Identity and Payments Summit was preceded by a unique showcase of mobile driver’s license (mDL) practical use cases, which put the spotlight firmly on developments, challenges and possibilities in mDL technology. But as many speakers pointed out, mDL is just one part of a more complex security equation, as digital ID, payments and cryptography converge and AI-assisted fraud tactics evolve at breakneck speed.

Some of the brightest minds in the business gathered in Coronado, California to discuss biometrics, wallets, digital credentials, post-quantum preparedness and more. Full coverage of the event is available here.

Reports by Joel R. McConvey.

Biometric Update coverage of the 2025 Identity and Payments Summit

Looming quantum event gives rise to the need for cryptoagility, post-quantum prep

For a few years now, the cybersecurity community has had its own version of Y2K, the calendar change that threatened to take down global IT infrastructure. This time it’s not a date issue, but rather the massive implications of quantum computing, which theoretically could make traditional encryption schemes obsolete.

Evolution of fraud demands layered response: AuthenticID, Aware, Daon panel

By now, everyone has received a scam call or a phishing email. Yet amorphous and invisible threat actors – “fraudsters,” in the parlance – can feel like an abstract foe, ill-defined and painted in the garish colors of a Batman villain, wielding deepfakes, injection attacks and other ominous-sounding weapons.

Wallets, mDL, biometrics combine to offer a new paradigm for ID and payments

As the name of the Secure Technology Alliance’s (STA) Identity and Payments Summit suggests, identity and payments are still mostly siloed. But that’s changing. A host of speakers at the event are exploring the most likely place for digital ID and payments to converge: the digital wallet. The big question is, how to get people to use them?

Mobile driver’s licenses take center stage at STA’s mDL showcase

On the surface, mobile driver’s licenses (mDL) are among the simpler technologies on offer in the biometrics and digital identity industry: a digital version of your most trusted piece of identification, housed on your mobile phone. But the basic concept belies a host of complexities in implementation, as vendors try to woo relying parties with their mDL products, governments and issuing authorities wrestle with legislation and certification, and the question of interoperability hangs over the ecosystem.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  cryptography  |  digital ID  |  Identity and Payments Summit  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)  |  post-quantum cryptography  |  Secure Technology Alliance