Augmented identity is enhanced, adaptable, and self-sovereigned: IDEMIA

IDEMIA is a multinational technology company headquartered in Courbevoie, France. It provides identity-related security services, and sells facial recognition and other biometric identification products and software to private companies and governments.

Here, Sanjeev Shriya, Regional President, IDEMIA, tells us more about augmented identity. Excerpts from an interview:

DQ: How has augmented identity industry evolved in the last few years. What are some of the upcoming trends?

Sanjeev Shriya: In the present times information travels rapidly around the digitized space, defying boundaries and breaking the traditional codes of security. But the industry expertise and knack for foresight has pushed augmented identity further. IDEMIA stands for augmented identity in a connected world in which the security of identity has become essential, without any breach of data.

IDEMIA guarantees secure, authenticated, and verifiable transactions to clients from various business domains. Fore.g., Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors. Augmented identity is so enhanced, adaptable, strengthened, and self-sovereign that it makes our world a safer place to live. We are now living in a world where identity is becoming the universal and vital credential to enable movements and interactions.

The sector is ever evolving, but fewer upcoming trends which we foresee would be exponential growth of connected objects, digitalization of the economy, consumerization of technology, etc.

Identity is based on any physical or digital transaction. For most people, the creation of a physical identity is carried out in the form of government birth registration and it is most used mechanism of identity verification in the physical presentation of an identification document.

There are few services that do not require verification, such as websites and social networks where you can create accounts using a fictitious name without providing any identity attributes.

But, its pivotal for security to authenticate and verify the identity in both spaces. IDEMIA technologies enable the same with its base being Biometric technologies. It determines what a user can and cannot access based on their identity. As only with Biometrics you can be you.

DQ: How are organizations ensuring unmatched access of security, convenience and throughput?

Sanjeev Shriya: In today’s world of innovation numerous organizations strives to provide themselves with quick and easy access to an ever-increasing number of applications as security risks have grown more complex. Uplifted security of advanced personalities is additionally required like never before. Along with cyber-attacks designed to raid bank accounts and steal credit card details, hackers are using digital tech for identity theft and other illegitimate activities.

Our mobile devices put an incredible amount of information in the palm of our hands: our schedules, banking details, emails, and anything else that we might need. It’s no longer just humans interacting with technology! Electronic equipment now interacts with other equipment. Electronic devices that were once isolated are now connected and can be operated from anywhere in the world.

Service providers from both the private sectors (mobile operators, banks) and public sectors (governments) are adapting and implementing the digitalization as required to adapt their processes in order to offer a continuous seamless experience to the end users and citizens in the real world and online. Similarly, Biometrics are offering a real opportunity to tighten security and simplify peoples’ everyday lives by creating continuity between their identity in the physical and digital world.

Few organizations are using IDEMIA’s touchless 3D fingerprint (Morpho Wave) technology to protect their premises. MorphoWave solution is thorough, dependable and has rapidly become the benchmark in frictionless access. It acquires four fingers in 3D for maximum accuracy, with one pass of the hand over the sensor. It being hygienic touchless solution, delivers an unmatched combination of security, convenience, and throughput.

DQ: How is technology enabling hyper-personalization of services such as access system, augmented identity, and catering to the evolving consumers?

Sanjeev Shriya: At the point when we improve, we are thinking security from the earliest starting point, from the definition of the specifications, and all along the process this is the thing that we call security by structure and with our plan thinking approach, we are placing final usage at the heart of the conception process. The world leverage biometric credentials as a security key and cryptography as a protection shield.

For instance, IDEMIA has created the world’s first 3D touchless fingerprint solution to control access to any location, also re-invent payment cards with dynamic CVV and with biometrics for increased transaction security and convenience online as well as in the real world and, with IMSI encryption on IDEMIA’s 5G SIM we will provide better end-user privacy with greater protection against location tracking.

With meaningful innovation, we transform society for a better tomorrow and we enable billions of people to:

•​Exist in the Eye Of Society: We sit at the helm of Aadhaar, the largest and most ambitious identity program in the world

•​Travel Seamlessly: We streamline the passenger journey through airports with automated paperless departure processes as done at Changi airport

•​Live in a Safer World: We support police forces with efficient tools to protect public places and solve cases faster.

Solving crimes faster implies having systems that co-exist and interoperate. System interconnection is key to creating a safer and better environment – whether between regions or different agencies such as border control entities and intelligence units. If, for example, a criminal is fleeing a crime scene in a car, the car’s license plate number could be fed into a video analytics platform and then be followed in real-time through speed cameras

•​Digitalize their Critical Activities: We allow people to open a bank account, sign up for a mobile data plan and access governmental services all from the comfort of their home.

•​Transact in a Fast and Secure Way: We provide bank customers with hassle-free and highly secure payment means.

•​Connect Securely: We secure connectivity for people and objects on cellular and low power networks.

DQ: What are the existing challenges in the security and identity solutions industry? What kind of opportunities do you see for this sector that will impact the businesses post Covid-19?

Sanjeev Shriya: The scope in the security and identity solutions industry has increased in many folds because end-user demands for convenience have never been this higher; the need to maintain strong access controls has never been more critical – or more complex.

In the early days of online authentication, it was challenging to have convenient security. In recent time, what we see is that with artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, cryptography and biometrics, we are adding to the human factor of the equation, rooting security with who we are, intrinsic to us. Cyber security is a big concern globally as security risks have grown more complex. And, at IDEMIA we are pleased to provide solutions for it.

With the global digital transformation, many of the interactions that enterprises have with their customers are shifting online, where identity verification must be done remotely. Due to which customers expect total convenience without sacrificing security. Because of this, we are seeing an increase in uptake of digital authentication of an identity (physical / digital) using biometrics in both physical and digital environments.

Now banks, mobile operators, and other enterprises must enroll and authenticate their customers without ever meeting them face-to-face, and they must do it in a way that is secure, convenient, and complies with regulations. Because today, customers expect access to services anytime and anywhere. Enterprises that have already implemented digital onboarding and remote identity verification solutions have seen the benefits:

* Signing up for an account with insurance companies takes 30 seconds instead of 4 days waiting for a letter with access codes by mail.

* Accessing your credit registration online takes just a few minutes, where previously, customers would wait days for delivery by mail after identification at the post office or bank.

* Healthcare providers can go through an online registration within 10 minutes where previously it could take up to 28 days.

* Taking out a mobile phone subscription now takes a few minutes, where it first took almost half an hour.

For financial institutions, onboarding new investors takes now just five minutes instead of a few days.

DQ: How are new-age technologies like AI and ML supporting in the development of augmented identity solutions?

Sanjeev Shriya: In the light of AI and ML, IDEMIA innovates for frictionless security in the physical and digital worlds to increase accuracy and speed for identification and authentication of people and documents, with the help of biometric identification technology.

We attempt to enable passengers to reach the Duty-Free zone within 10 minutes after they arrive at the airport. We support the police forces to analyze the massive amounts of video data to solve cases faster (cars, people, text recognition, etc.).

With our video and image analytics platform and with the help of facial recognition and document authentication we allow new bank clients to open accounts remotely, identifying themselves just with a dynamic selfie. And, in recent with the help of F.Code and MorphoWave technology, we replace PIN codes by fingerprints for contact and contactless payments and scan all four fingers in 3D with a simple wave of the hand, with approximately 30% more data per finger captured than with traditional systems, respectively.

Idemia’s newly launched advanced facial recognition device Vision Pass which is based on AI, won the SIA New Product Showcase Award in the Biometric category, at a virtual ceremony held on July 9th, 2020.

Its 2D+3D+infrared cameras, combined with AI-trained algorithms, deliver unrivalled performance:

•​Fully hygienic and frictionless – no need to stop and fix the device, it automatically adapts to the size of the person (120-200cm) and tolerates facial angles

•​Accurate and fast – up to 30 people per minute, up to 40,000 users

•​Effective in full sun or total darkness without the need for any dazzling flash, and works with all skin colors

•​Resistant to identity theft attempts by photo presentation or 3D mask.

IDEMIA’s MorphoWave (MWC) contactless fingerprint technology outperformed all other devices in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s latest Accuracy and Interoperability Test on all criteria involved. It is a stand-out technology that scans and checks four fingerprints in under a second by just waving your hand within the reader. This latter feature is very beneficial for some government programs, border control with video analytics AI and ML and minimizing passenger lines,whenever user fingerprints are already held in a database. So,it gives passengers a smoother and more hygienic user experience.