The Fed’s Dos And Don’ts For Digital ID Verification

The use of digital ID verification methods is becoming more prevalent in consumers’ everyday lives. With that shift, governments such as the U.K.’s are exploring options for developing nationwide digital ID systems that can enable access to various services.

But while governments and private entities focus their efforts on use of digital ID, hackers and fraudsters are continuing to wreak havoc. Last month, a hacker exposed the personal data of more than 100 million Capital One customers and applicants in a single data breach. In light of such breaches, FIs and merchants alike looking for ways to keep the data safe of their customers secure and further improving on their digital ID authentication procedures.

In the August “Digital Identity Tracker,” PYMNTS explores the increasing prevalence of digital identity, and how individuals, corporations and world governments are keeping themselves secure.

Developments From Around the Digital Identity World

Canada and the Netherlands recently unveiled the Known Traveller Digital Identity project, a joint initiative for paperless travel between the two countries. Passengers flying between Montreal, Toronto and Amsterdam will be able to substitute their passports for encrypted identity data that airline staff and customs authorities can check against biometric information. The project will be tested throughout 2019 before its implementation next year.

Digital ID partnerships are occurring in the private sector as well. Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual, for one, recently integrated Jumio’s biometric ID verification system. The latter’s solution was added into the former’s onboarding process, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to verify customers’ digital IDs so they can open accounts and manage investments online. The system can verify several government-issued IDs, including passports and driver’s licenses.

Many providers are using blockchain to improve their digital ID practices, including Fujitsu Laboratories. The lab’s new digital ID solution is based on Decentralized Identifiers (DID), which the company believes enable more trustworthy online credentials during transactions. Blockchain data storage makes it extremely hard for bad actors to falsify IDs without leaving digital paper trails behind.

For more on these and other digital identity developments, download this month’s Tracker.

Bringing Governmental ID Standards to the Private Sector

Merchants and FIs must often take painstaking measures to keep customers’ data secure — measures that are even more crucial on a government level, where fool-proof security of consumer data is even more critical. David Temoshok, senior policy adviser for the Trusted Identities Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) believes corporations could learn a thing or two about security from government entities.

For this month’s Feature Story, PYMNTS spoke with Temoshok about NIST’s efforts to improve security in both the public and private sectors, and outstanding vulnerabilities that still need to be addressed.

Deep Dive: Improving Digital ID Authentication — Sans Passwords

A recent PYMNTS study found that passwords are the most common authentication method used by financial services, eCommerce and health care companies. They are also one of the most vulnerable authentication methods, given consumers affinity to reuse them for multiple accounts.

This month’s Deep Dive explores several alternate authentication methods, and the benefits and drawbacks of each.

About the Tracker

The “Digital Identity Tracker,” a Jumio collaboration, frames and addresses key issues facing digital identity players. It highlights news and trends pertaining to those tasked with efficiently and securely identifying — and granting permission to — individuals so they can access, purchase and transact.