BT/ Apple Vision Pro headset to have Optic ID biometrics built-in

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Paradigm

32 min readJun 19, 2023

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Biometrics biweekly vol. 66, 5th June — 19th June

TL;DR

Apple announced its new Optic ID biometrics for the Vision Pro VR headset at its annual developers’ conference. The device uses iris identification, enabling owners to unlock the Vision Pro by putting it on.
On top of that, Apple has included facial recognition technology for the iPhone in one of its latest patents, which could potentially be used to help correct poor vision among users of its upcoming virtual reality headsets.
Google Photos now suggests names when no face is visible. Google Wallet rolls out mDL support and prepares more digital identity use cases
Mastercard partners with Moroccan fintech NAPs to boost financial inclusion
Identity verification by businesses upgraded by McDonald’s, Mvine
Tech5 develops biometrics checking capability to protect printed IDs against fraud
Gait, and face biometrics to be showcased in a concept car at VivaTech
Veridas adds anonymous age assurance in regulatory compliance platform expansion
Onfido adds ETSI identity proofing certification to support customer expansion
CyberLink announces integrations with an e-signature provider and MediaTek’s IoT platform
Au10tix restructures fraud protection, and digital ID portfolio to simplify customer choices
GovStack spec launches. Aimed at nations short on development resources
ID R&D breaks down new biometric spoof evaluation metric RIAPAR
Oz Forensics strikes up new European partnership with Bewor Tech
Shufti Pro, Innovatrics, and Fourthline ink KYC deals as consumer interest in AML spikes
iProov face biometrics integrated by the developer of software for government, financials
NADRA adds iris to automated biometric identification platform with Iris ID
IrisGuard to help Jordan provide digital IDs with iris scans
Yoti, Mitek, and Synectics launch pilot to fight digital ID fraud with shared signals
Digital fraud’s 20 percent rise motivates a search for digital identity insights
Ping launches service to combat MFA fatigue with behavioral biometrics and risk profiles
BioCatch identifies difficulties adapting to emerging financial threats
US, and EU agencies consider the role of digital wallets, the cloud in digital identity ecosystems
French Senate votes in favor of public facial recognition pilot
Mixed progress for digital IDs linked to payments in Japan, Australia, and India
Retail face biometric payments launched in Abu Dhabi by Astra Tech
EU unveils plan for digital Schengen visas in a push to ease travel document applications
Jenetric acquisition by Dermalog consolidates the German biometrics market
Fingerprint Cards joins the World Economic Forum community
Home Affairs Dept to become national ID-issuing authority in Bangladesh
Nigeria now has data protection legislation after years of back and forth
Cameroon partners with French Devt Agency to ramp up birth registration
Bhutan lawmakers examine a final draft of digital ID legislation
Kenya factors in biometrics in three-year digital government plan
Kuwait opens more fingerprint capture centers as database plans progress
OECD adopts recommendations on digital identity governance
Researchers from the University of Washington and Google have written code that reportedly is pretty good at identifying who among a group of subjects is coughing. It could be used in diagnosing and treating cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, and asthma.
Biometric industry events. And more!

Biometrics Market

The Biometric system market size is projected to grow from USD 36.6 billion in 2020 to USD 68.6 billion by 2025; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.4% during the forecast period. Increasing use of biometrics in consumer electronic devices for authentication and identification purposes, the growing need for surveillance and security with the heightened threat of terrorist attacks, and the surging adoption of biometric technology in automotive applications are the major factors propelling the growth of the biometric system market.

Latest Research:

Coughers identified in algorithm study

It is a development that begs the question, of what bodily function will not be turned into a biometric identifier?

Researchers from the University of Washington and Google have written code that reportedly is pretty good at identifying who among a group of subjects is coughing. It could be used in diagnosing and treating cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, and asthma.

It might even work on populations that have a future form of Covid.

Their paper claims that their model correctly classifies the noise 82.15 percent of the time. The researchers went beyond that, using an algorithm trained on speech, something that already has been done. Speech code “performed reasonably well on forced coughs,” according to the paper’s authors.

They instead used multi-task learning. The second task was biometric speaker verification among four subjects from a dataset of natural, in-the-wild coughing.

According to the authors, the algorithm bested humans doing the same task by 9.8 percent.

Ultimately, the researchers found that they can on average outperform human listeners on the four-way classification task with 10 enrollment samples.

A researcher behind a similar paper published earlier this year told Wired that while the algorithms can have practical value for health applications, but may need further development to be used as biometrics.

Your Nighttime Snores and Coughs May Be Unique

Early research aims to look for patterns in an individual's sleep sounds using deep neural networks-with potential…

www.wired.com

Main News:

Apple Vision Pro headset to have Optic ID biometrics built in

Apple announced its new Optic ID biometrics for the Vision Pro VR headset at its annual developers’ conference. The device uses iris identification, enabling owners to unlock the Vision Pro by putting it on.

Its eye tracking is performed by two infrared cameras and a ring of LEDs in the mask. The Vision Pro uses visionOS. Users can browse app icons by looking at them. It does not share raw iris data or its surroundings with apps, which do not continuously know where the user is looking, 9to5Mac reports.

To mitigate the concern that the headset would isolate wearers, Apple projects a 3D image of surroundings on the wearer’s eyes in a way that makes the device look somewhat transparent.

The headset is capable of both augmented and virtual reality.

When in full VR mode, a glowing screen obscures an external projection of the wearer’s eyes, signaling that the person is not available.

It also can project 3D digital objects into real space. For instance, when remotely talking to someone, a person can arrange “video tiles” of FaceTime participants around the room, according to The Verge.

Apple Vision Pro is Apple's new $3,499 AR headset

Apple has announced its first virtual and augmented reality headset at WWDC.

www.theverge.com

There are 12 cameras, six microphones, and five other kinds of sensors in the device.

A TrueDepth camera maps the wearer’s face, just like FaceID biometrics on iPhones. And on the outside, two cameras point ahead, two cameras track a wearer’s hands, and a lidar scanner detects the distance of people and objects. A flexible headband attaches magnetically to the back of the display.

Also inside magnets that can hold Zeiss optical lenses for vision correction. It also uses OLED technology to create a 4K display for each eye. There are 44 pixels in the space of a single iPhone pixel.

The headset itself is modular, enabling users to swap parts to achieve the right fit for their face and head. Speakers delivering spatial audio are located on either side of the device.

“Vision Pro feels familiar, yet it’s entirely new. You can see, hear and interact with digital content just like it’s in your physical space, said Apple CEO Tim Cook at the conference, as quoted by Reuters. “It’s the first Apple product you look through, and not at.”

Apple looks to protect IP on biometrics for vision correction and headset authentication

Apple has included facial recognition technology for the iPhone in one of its latest patents, which could potentially be used to help correct poor vision among users of its upcoming virtual reality headsets.

In the new tech, spotted by Patently Apple, an iPhone performs a facial recognition scan of a user with its optical sensor system.

Apple Wins a Patent for Vision Correction Lenses, Privacy Eyewear and Advancing Face ID

Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to methods for…

www.patentlyapple.com

This captures images using a “dot pattern” to create a biometric identity “depth map” of the face it is used on, or set of these.

The tech came as part of a wider patent for vision-correcting technology, which could theoretically help to combat poor eyesight in Apple’s new line of mixed reality headsets.

The news follows the Hong Kong Patent and Trademark Office published another patent filing for ‘Optic ID,’ the company's new secure authentication system based on iris-based biometrics.

The tech giant has also been granted a patent in the U.S. and filed an application in Europe, though these used slightly different wording.

‘Optic ID‘ is set to handle biometric authentication for the new Apple Vision Pro Spatial Computing Headset, recently introduced at its annual WWDC23 Keynote, similar to how FaceID provides biometric authentication for iPhone users.

The tech giant also filed for yet another trademark — ‘Apple Reality’ — in Europe (UK), Australia, and New Zealand.

This is a term that has yet to be used in any of their public marketing material, and any potential link to biometrics is as of yet unknown.

Though this particular facial recognition technology is new, the is not the first biometrics-related patent the tech giant has rolled out in recent months.

In May, Apple was awarded a U.S. patent for binding a person to their digital ID with selfie biometrics. In this patent, an iPhone user that has previously enrolled in a government ID program would then select the particular agency they wanted to interact with. The users would then be able to connect this ID data collected on their phone to this government ID profile. This type of tech could potentially be used for age verification. Capturing health data may be one area of biometrics in which Apple which is performing strongly in. According to data from Watch Faces, sales of the Apple Watch — whose ability to capture health data such as heart rate has remained consistently popular — hit 53.9 million in 2022, the first time it cracked the 50 million mark

Apple Watch dominates the market with 50 million units sold in 2022 - Watch Faces for Apple Watch

Discover how Apple Watch, initially struggling after its 2015 release, turned the tables with 53.9 million units sold…

watchfaces.co

Google Wallet rolls out mDL support and prepares more digital identity use cases

Google Wallet users in certain U.S. states will now be able to store digital identities on their phones.

From today onwards, people with a Maryland ID, such as a driver’s license, will be able to add this to their Google Wallet, provided their device has Android 8.0 or later with device lock enabled.

Residents of Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia will soon have access to the feature at an unspecified date “within the coming months.”

Maryland wallet users will now be able to use their new saved ID at TSA PreCheck lines at certain airports, and Google promises users will soon get more use cases for the feature. These include online car booking and account verification.

The latest piece of news should not come as much of a surprise. Back in April 2022, 9to5Google highlighted a tweet that implies that Google Wallet could one day support digital ID for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport checkpoints in the U.S.

A Google spokesperson told Biometric Update that it has plenty of other airline-related use cases on the horizon, pointing to how it is “working with our airline partners around the world to make it even easier to check in to your flight and save your boarding pass to Wallet through RCS, which we just announced with Vietnam Airlines.”

In addition, the tech giant was able to roll out other identity-related features

Users will now be able to add their corporate badges to their Google Wallet at some point later this year,

In addition, users in some countries, such as Germany, will be able to add their local transit passes to Google Wallet, purchased at select transit agencies to their Wallet. These “Deutschlandticket” passes allow access to transportation across all of Germany.

Google’s new digital identity functionality is also set to extend to health insurance cards. The company is collaborating with health insurance firm Humana, which will see a digital version of its health insurance card become available in Google Wallet.

In the UK, Google Wallet users will be able to save their National Insurance Number — used for Tax purposes as well as access a huge variety of social to their Wallet via the HMRC app.

As details such as tax details and healthcare are considered more sensitive, Google will grant these a “Private pass” label and will require verification, such as a fingerprint or pin to access.

Addressing some of the potential security concerns that surround digital identity, Google told Biometric Update how it sees these “Private Passes” working in the future.

“Private Passes are passes that contain sensitive data, such as a Mobile Driver’s License and COVID cards,” the spokesperson explained. “Given it contains sensitive personal information, Google Wallet will require you to verify before you can view or use these passes.”
“The data in private passes are visible only to you by default. You must consent in order to share data in your private pass with a relying party in an encrypted manner, such as when presenting your mDL at a TSA terminal.”
They added: “Pass issuers can use our Private Passes API to create private passes in the Wallet including healthcare membership cards, pharmaceutical cards, etc.”

Google Photos now suggesting names when no face is visible

It may not exactly be back-of-the-head recognition or male-pattern-baldness biometrics, but Google Photos appears to have developed a way to suggest who a person is in a photo of them that shows the back of their head, rather than their face, according to Android Authority.

Google confirms Photos can now "facially" recognize you from behind (Updated)

Google Photos is now doing facial recognition on the backs of people's heads and properly tagging your friends and…

www.androidauthority.com

The app has long used facial recognition for tagging photos with the names of those in them, but the new feature shows accuracy estimated by Android Authority at around 80 to 85 percent at identifying an individual in shots where they are facing away from the camera. The method of doing so may take signals other than the appearance of the person’s head, such as their clothes, similarities to other photos where their face is visible, or image meta-data.

To whatever extent that biometrics are playing a role in the new method of identification used for tagging by Google Photos, it appears to be something entirely different from the challenging task of matching face biometrics for faces that are heavily occluded or shown at acute angles.

The photos shown and described in the article do not include the subject’s eyes, nose or moth at all, and would previously not have been tagged by the app. Now, a notice reading “face available to add” suggests the identity of the subject, and tags the photo if it is confirmed by the account operator.

Google Photos has also reportedly gotten better at identifying face partially occluded by masks, no doubt with the benefit of the millions of images uploaded during the pandemic that it could use for training.

Mastercard partners with Moroccan fintech NAPs to boost financial inclusion

Mastercard has partnered with Moroccan fintech NAPs to develop new payment solutions.

The Casablanca-based company was the first Moroccan firm given a non-bank institution license in 2012 by the Central Bank of Morocco to provide and process electronic payment instruments.

NAPs, which is a division of M2M Group, offers services such as cards and payment products as well as account management, money transfer, reconciliation, settlement, and dispute resolution. M2M Group provides several biometrics-based solutions, including the MX ID an electronic platform for issuing and managing biometric identity documents.

The companies said the collaboration will improve NAPs’ innovation capabilities via increased access to Mastercard’s technology and improve its time to market for its yet-to-launch digital offerings.

In addition, the companies say they plan to implement new ecosystems of digital services in Morocco, which will boost digital payments and improve user experiences in service of financial inclusion.

These new digital ecosystems will allow for high-value applications and new service opportunities in Morocco according to the companies.

Morocco currently has one of the highest percentages of unbanked people globally, according to World Bank research from 2022, with just 44 percent percent of people having a bank account, which falls to roughly 33 percent for women, one of the lowest rates worldwide.

However, a CGAP report called Fintechs Across the Arab World, issued in December 2020, highlighted Morocco as the third-largest fintech hub among the 22 member countries of the Arab League, pointing to strong mobile coverage and favorable regulation.

Though there was no explicit mention of digital identity or biometric capabilities in the latest Mastercard announcement, it does note that NAPs benefits from M2M Group’s expertise in biometrics. Morocco is also pushing ahead with the addition of digital ID capabilities for its citizens, which could one day be used for financial inclusion.

Tech5 develops biometrics checking capability to protect printed IDs against fraud

Tech5 has launched a digital security capability using biometrics to guard against the substitution or manipulation of facial image on a printed identity document.

The new T5-FaceLink feature can be used in various scenarios to provide assurance that the document is genuine and belongs to the bearer, without requiring any special tools, according to the company announcement.

A high-density code that contains a biometric representation of the face is printed on the document, alongside the photo, with both captured to complete verification. Tech5’s software compares the two in real time.

Despite the several levels of protection built into printed ID documents to protect against forgery and theft, Tech5 Co-founder, Chairman and CTO Rahul Parthe says that fraudulent documents with swapped photos remain a significant fraud threat.

“Inspired by the T5-Digital ID’s features and advantages and combining it with our identity market expertise, we developed T5-FaceLink to improve document security,” says Parthe. “It allows linking the photo on the document to the security feature, proving the authenticity using digital signature and additionally biometrically verifying the holder of the ID directly against the document (if required), unlocking additional verification capability for offline use cases.”

T5-FaceLink can also hold a digital signature asserting the document's legitimacy. The technology can also be added to existing ID documents to upgrade their protection against fraud without replacing them or adding an electronic chip storing the user’s biometrics.

“The protection of identity documents from photo substitution becomes more important with the increased use of ID documents in remote/unattended eKYC scenarios increasingly used by banks, telcos, enterprises, healthcare providers, and governments,” says Tech5 Strategy Advisor Rob Haslam. “We believe that T5-FaceLink is an answer to solving the fraud problem involving the use of documents with swapped photographs for both online and offline verification use cases.”

Gait, face biometrics to be showcased in concept car at VivaTech

Software République, a two-year-old six-company collaborative project working on mobility systems is scheduled to show off a concept car, dubbed the H1st vision, sporting biometrics at Paris’ VivaTech conference.

République includes some of Europe’s largest software companies including Atos, Dassault Systèmes, Orange, Renault Group, STMicroelectronics and Thales.

The concept car also received input from startups Arkamys, Compredict, Epicnpoc, Eyelights, Kardome and Stern Tech.

The VivaTech, June 14–17, is held annually in Paris and attracts up to 124,000 attendees.

Among this year’s scheduled speakers are French President Emmanuel Macron, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman, MIT Media Lab Director Dava Newman, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and, for deep perspective on the technology, Bob Metcalfe, father of Ethernet.

The H1st vision, or Human First vision, will spotlight access controls with gait and face biometrics, predictive hazard alerts, optimized vehicle range and recharging techniques and continuous monitoring of driver.

According to Philippe Keryer, a strategy and research executive at Thales, to access cars in the future, people will be identified by the car using their digital profiles (their name, height and ID photo) and video footage of them walking to the vehicle.

According to Keryer, identifying data will be encrypted and stored in the vehicle itself, in a digital ID wallet designed by Thales.

The company also developed the biometric data processing and analytics system for the vehicle’s “digital twin,” a virtual model mirror. Sensors could relay information to the twin, which can run simulations to improve performance.

The virtual twin software, which Thales developed, would also “interact with each other in their real or virtual environment — with the driver and passengers but also all other vehicles and mobility systems, alternative transport options, smart road infrastructure, connected car parks and charging stations.”

Digital twin software has been used for simulating biometric passenger access as well as for detecting road hazards.

Veridas adds anonymous age assurance in regulatory compliance platform expansion

Veridas has expanded the capabilities of its age verification software with age validation solely through selfie biometrics, avoiding ID scanning or other steps that can identify the individual. This, the company says, protects end-user privacy.

The Age Verification product from Veridas is designed to meet stringent regulations, according to the company announcement, and combines biometric verification with artificial intelligence. Regulations around age restrictions are increasing in many jurisdictions, as governments grapple with online harms from sites offering gambling, adult content, and other material. Even social media use is being legally restricted based on age in some places, such as U.S. states Louisiana and Arkansas.

Adult site network Pornhub is attempting to rally opposition to a wave of age verification requirements in the U.S., CNN reports. The effort includes appeals to site visitors, as well as tech giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft.

First on CNN: Pornhub asks users and Big Tech for help as states adopt age verification laws | CNN…

Pornhub last month withdrew from Utah over a new law requiring adult sites to verify users' ages and holding them…

www.cnn.com

Arkansas, Mississippi and Virginia are all set to join Utah, which Pornhub has pulled out of, in requiring age verification.

“As regulatory bodies continue to tighten restrictions on age-restricted products and services, Veridas is committed to delivering advanced solutions that streamline compliance processes and enhance user experiences,” says Eduardo Azanza, CEO at Veridas. “Our Age Verification product leverages cutting-edge AI technology, providing businesses with the means to safeguard against underage access while delivering a seamless and frictionless experience for their customers.”

Veridas says its age verification software gives businesses a fast and reliable way to avoid potential fines and reputational damage, reducing user friction to increase customer acquisition and providing an extra layer of trust and confidence in regulatory compliance.

The new Facial Age Validation service can be used on its own or in orchestrated combination with other Veridas suite components. Those additional components include ID document verification, biometric identity verification, liveness detection, and checks of government and other databases.

The company’s technology already performs age verification for a range of clients, including BBVA, Cabify, and Renfe.

Onfido adds ETSI identity proofing certification to support customer expansion

UK-based biometric identity verification provider Onfido says it has achieved the latest European standard for identity proofing and trust services, and says it is the first global provider approved by both the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the UK Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF).

ETSI is a not-for-profit standardization organization that works closely with the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) on setting technical standards. Onfido received the ETSI TS 119 461 certification. Using the organization’s language, the new certification allows it to act as an Identity Proofing Service Provider (IPSP) for Qualified Trust Service Providers (QTSP) to support know your customer (KYC) processes for anti-money laundering (AML) regulated businesses.

The ETSI certification has also set a foundation for the company to issue trust services, such as qualified electronic signatures (QES), according to Onfido’s general counsel Francesca Porter.

“Regulation is essential for ensuring secure access to online services, preventing fraudulent activity and encouraging innovation,” says Porter. “We will continue to support organizations in meeting their compliance needs with resources dedicated to tracking regulation as it evolves and factoring it into our product roadmap.”

Onfido has had a busy spring, acquiring Airside Mobile, which sells user-controlled digital identity services for the airline industry, and integrating closer with customer relationship management platform Salesforce. It also struck a deal with UK’s Co-operative Bank for new customer onboarding while Belgium’s largest cable broadband service provider, Telenet, was granted approval to use Onfido for remote identity verification.

Yoti, Mitek and Synectics launch pilot to fight digital ID fraud with shared signals

A pilot project to show the feasibility of real-time fraud intelligence sharing described as ‘first-of-its-kind’ by Synectics Solutions has been launched in partnership with Mitek and Yoti.

The shared signals pilot is a proof-on-concept initiative dubbed ‘Project Shield.’

During Phase 1 of the pilot, Synectics’ National SIRA platform provides the dedicated digital pathway along which specific signals will be shared by Yoti and Mitek to test data that can help identify fake or fraudulently obtained ID documents. Yoti and Mitek will use the platform’s real-time API and asynchronous alert system, and the same platform is currently used by banks. The data shared will include information on compromised credentials, accounts, and identities.

John Abbott, chief commercial officer at Yoti comments: “While this is a relatively simple test scenario, it will potentially show how collaboration between Identity Service Providers can create a cohesive, shared framework which can identify and prevent fraud. We’re pleased to be part of this important project and play our part in protecting individuals from the growing risks of fraud.”
“At Mitek, we’re fully committed to advancing solutions that fight fraud and the many forms it can take,” adds Chris Briggs, senior VP of Identity at Mitek. “We also realize that in an increasingly digital world, the ability to prevent the spread of fraud across a Digital ID ecosystem will require cooperation and communication across identity service providers. That’s why we’re excited to help Synectics pioneer a solution that would support the many relying parties who use our services in their efforts to tackle financial crime and improve the customer experiences they offer. We know this will also be good news for members of the public who want to simplify their online interactions without compromising on security.”

Shared signals are widely supported as a way to improve the security of digital identities against fraud. They are also expected to be required under the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (UKDIATF), according to the announcement.

Protecting those signals from data theft, related privacy concerns, and standardizing the sharing format and process are among challenges that the partners have set out to meet with the POC.

“Our aim with this initiative,” explains Synectics’ Head of Solutions Chris Lewis, “is to demonstrate that these concerns can be addressed, allowing certified Identity Service Providers to confidently leverage the significant benefits of shared signals to fight fraud in an increasingly digital era. Protecting their customers and ultimately the general public.
“To do this, we’re blending the real-time awareness benefits associated with a fraud signals framework, with the longer-term fraud prevention implications of a shared threat intelligence platform where data persists beyond the immediate threat.”

Lewis emphasizes the benefits of mainstream digital identity adoption, including easier customer journeys and improved financial inclusion.

CyberLink announces integrations with e-signature provider and MediaTek’s IoT platform

Facial recognition firm CyberLink is set to collaborate with digital signature solutions provider Kdan Mobile Software.

The collaboration will see CyberLink’s FaceMe eKYC solution and Kdan’s e-signature solution, DottedSign, integrated for the purposes of identity verification, which the firms say will strengthen anti-fraud capabilities during the signing process.

The latest announcement, according to the companies, paves the way for further partnerships later down the road between the two.

But that is not the only recent announcement from CyberLink; its FaceMe facial recognition engine has been integrated with MediaTek’s Genio 700 smart IoT platform.

The Genio 700 is a system-on-chip (SoC) system that provides CPU, GPU, and AI modules, for smart homes, smart retail, and industrial IoT devices.

The company claims that the new hardware integration will provide increases in performance of 6.5X, with a 24 percent reduction in CPU usage in comparison to running FaceMe exclusively via APU Hardware and CPU processing.

MediaTek claims Genio 700 increases the number of image frames that can be processed per second, and its platform can also support real-time AI facial recognition from multiple simultaneous video streams, for scenarios use cases such as smart retail, and access control.

Au10tix restructures fraud protection, digital ID portfolio to simplify customer choices

Identity intelligence company Au10tix has completed its portfolio restructuring, which culminated in the relaunch of its Instinct offering as Serial Fraud Monitor.

The strategic move, which began in May, aims to align with market trends and better serve both existing and new clients.

By consolidating its offerings into four distinct product suites, Au10tix aims to enhance the customer experience and simplify business decision-making.

“We are thrilled to unveil our revitalized product portfolio, marking a new chapter in our identity journey,” comments Au10tix’s new CEO Dan Yerushalmi, who joined the company in January.
“This transformation represents our continued commitment to delivering exceptional experiences to our valued customers.”

The four product suites include four software tools: Identity Verification Suite, Serial Fraud Monitor, Reusable Digital ID, and the Au10tix Platform.

The first of these suites — Identity Verification Suite — offers businesses comprehensive solutions for ID verification, age and address verification, voice and video biometric-based consent and AML compliance.

The Serial Fraud Monitor suite, on the other hand, relies on advanced neural network technology to provide real-time protection against sophisticated identity fraud, including swarm attacks and synthetic fraud.

With Reusable Digital ID, a product released in collaboration with Microsoft, organizations can streamline identity verification processes, automate workflows and enhance data security through verifiable credentials and advanced liveness detection.

Finally, the Au10tix Platform provides businesses with seamless integration, remote onboarding capabilities, workflow orchestration, and rule definition, offering a customizable solution for efficient and secure identity management.

“Our holistic identity management solution also promises to safeguard businesses and customers against the most sophisticated identity fraud, both now and in the future,” concludes Yerushalmi.

Au10tix’s new product portfolio is being showcased at Money20/20 Europe, an event taking place between Tuesday and Thursday in Amsterdam.

GovStack spec launches. Aimed at nations short on development resources

An initiative created to help governments with few resources digitize their services, has launched its framework version 1 and is seeking product candidates.

Launched in 2020, GovStack‘s service was created to reduce the cost, time and resources required to create digital platforms and services. The project takes inspiration and practices from digital services champions such as Estonia, India and Singapore. It was founded by Estonia, Germany, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)

Its software modules are use-case specific. GovStack defines the technical specifications for the building blocks and their APIs.

The consortium released a new version of specifications last week, including nine foundational building blocks: Identity verification, payments, consent, digital registries, messaging, information mediation, registration, scheduler and workflow. More than 80 tech experts from over 40 organizations contributed to this work, the organization says in a release. They specifications are meant to help developers of digital public goods and commercial software, and government IT leaders.

The GovStack initiative also plans to provide countries with digital government strategy, technical design and prototyping of digital services, as well as build capacity through training. Another goal for the initiative is creating a sandbox GovStack-compliant products.

The first version of GovStack was introduced by Jaume Dubois, CEO of digital identity company ID30 in a LinkedIn post. Dubois was part of the working group tasked with building an ID building block.

Jaume Dubois on LinkedIn: GovStack

GovStack framework version 1.0 have been published 🚀 We are looking 🔍 for more products candidates ready to meet the…

www.linkedin.com

“The identity building block workgroup has developed the necessary APIs for onboarding of users in functional systems making a strong link with foundational ID, guaranteeing the uniqueness and the existence of the related individual behind the functional system,” says Dubois.
“This means for example, a social security service or a bank can make sure of the authenticity of the person behind the digital ID.”

ID R&D breaks down new biometric spoof evaluation metric RIAPAR

The 2023 revision of the ISO/IEC 30107 standard for presentation attack detection gives weight to a new metric for evaluating false alarms in spoof detection, as explained in a blog post from ID R&D on the update.

What's New in the Recent Update of ISO/IEC 30107 for Biometric Presentation Attack Detection?

What's New in the Recent Update of ISO/IEC 30107 for Biometric Presentation Attack Detection? - ID R&D offers biometric…

www.idrnd.ai

The new update to the PAD standards’ Part 3 on testing and reporting introduces the concept of relative impostor attack presentation accept rate, or ‘RIAPAR,’ to the liveness standard.

RIAPAR is made up of two error rates; one for spoofs accepted as genuine biometric samples, and another for rejections of genuine biometric samples.

IAPAR, or impostor attack presentation match rate, contributes to RIAPAR by expressing the “likelihood of a successful attack on a complete biometric system.” RIAPAR, therefore, is a combination of IAPAR and FRR (false rejection rate). In this way, according to the blog post, it evaluates both the security and convenience of the system.

The standard has previously relied on attack presentation classification error rate (APCER) and bona fide presentation classification error rate (BPCER) to assess the effectiveness of PAD systems, which ID R&D argues “makes it difficult to assess how the technology will work in a real-world environment.”

The post breaks down how RIAPAR is calculated, and why it is important.

ID R&D also highlighted the financial impact of user friction introduced into customer onboarding processes from false positives in spoof detection in a recent case study.

US, EU agencies consider role of digital wallets, cloud in digital identity ecosystems

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program is now accepting applications around the topic of privacy-preserving digital credential wallets and verifiers.

The program looks to nurture an R&D environment for technologies with potential government use cases.

The government project is looking to assess solutions that “catalyze, develop, enhance, and operationalize a set of privacy-preserving building blocks that can support the needs of a privacy-preserving digital credentialing ecosystem.”

A ‘Digital Wallets Call Industry Day’ event will be held on August 18 to help vendors understand the requirements and how to apply.

SVIP Digital Wallet Industry Day - August 2023

Online registration for SVIP Digital Wallet Industry Day - August 2023.

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In particular, the project is looking for “privacy-preserving technical capabilities” that support and integrate with the three-party digital identity model (issuer, holder, verifier) enabled by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Verifiable Credential Data Model (VCDM), and W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs).

In addition, applications will need to be seen to meet the needs of the DHS Operational Components and Offices, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the DHS Privacy Office (PRIV).

Applications must respond and must fit into the technical specifications of either a “Digital Wallet” or “Mobile Verifier” to be eligible.

In the case of digital wallets, the project is seeking applications that are “useful across contexts and jurisdictions, and can support credentials made possible with W3C VCDM/DID standards that include verified support for DHS-issued credentials.”
The project also specified that these should be “portable, highly secure, privacy-preserving, standards-based, interoperable, and multi-functional.”

In terms of mobile verifiers, these applications must be able to be deployed on mobile devices, including iOS and Android-based devices.

In addition, these applications will need to support a broad range of credentials possible, including W3C VCDM/DID standards with verified support for DHS-issued credentials.

The above is not the only area of the biometrics ecosystem which the DHS is supporting.

In 2023, the DHS unveiled the “second track” of its small ID validation demo. This will examine the applicants’ software capabilities when it comes to spotting imposters in selfies and in images of identification documents.

In Europe, the public sector is also looking to address the technical issues and nurture the ecosystem surrounding digital identity.

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has issued a report on moving trust services, such as those of the eIDAS digital identity project to the cloud. Although eIDAS 2.0 proposes the establishment of European digital identity wallets, the update is still in development, and ENISA therefore steers clear of the topic, along with the four new trust services proposed.

The report found that though some services, including “validation of signatures, registered delivery, time stamp or signature preservation” can be transitioned from on-premises implementations to the cloud quickly, others such as “issuance of certificates and remote control over the signing device” require more nuanced analysis and preparation.

Trust Services-Secure move to the cloud of the eIDAS ecosystem

This report includes a detailed analysis on the different technical requirements that must be addressed considering the…

www.enisa.europa.eu

Data sovereignty issues were also touched on and the report found that the migrated data must stay in the data of the service provider and that some services may not be suitable for cloud migration.

ENISA recently hosted a workshop in Amsterdam, Netherlands to discuss some of the challenges around moving national implementations of trust services to the cloud, and remote identity proofing with digital wallets.