Boosting digital identity security with identity verification and authentication

The Paypers sat with Olivier Thirion de Briel, HID Global to discuss why is crucial for banks and financial institutions to offer a holistic management approach towards digital identity when onboarding and servicing customers

How would you portray a complete digital identity journey? What solutions should a provider of trusted identities offer in order to achieve it?

There are 4 main steps in a complete digital identity journey:

1. The identity creation (one can challenge that the identity is created/distributed only after being validated and the identity distribution could be listed as an additional step);

2. The identity verification/proofing to ensure the identity attributes are correct;

3. The identity usage with:

• The authentication that is about demonstrating the person is the right owner of an asset.
• The authorisation that is about determining what the user can or cannot do based on his identity.
• The federation that is about conveying identity attributes and/or authentication across multiple parties.

4. The identity revocation when this digital identity should be removed from the digital world.

Narrowing it down to the current role that digital identity plays in the process of customer onboarding, what technologies should banks adopt in order to balance compliance, costs, and UX?

If we split the customer digital onboarding process in multiple steps, it would be:

1. Identity verification:

• Data capture with ID documents scanning and OCR (Optical Character Recognition techniques);
• Document authentication (tamper detection, validity verification etc.);
• Biometric capture (electronic facial matching between the face capture and the photo on the document ID, liveness detection);
• Customer report generation for KYC compliance checks.

2. Decision making based on KYC checks;

3. Digital contract signature;

4. Account opening.

As a specialist in trusted digital identities, HID Global provides all the identity verification steps.

By covering both the identity verification and the authentication/authorisation/federation, HID Global provides a smooth and consistent UX from end-to-end around the digital identity lifecycle (face recognition onboarding for authentication during the ID verification process and same user experience ‘style’ during the full process). HID helps banks being compliant with KYC regulations and all regulations requiring strong authentication. Additionally, it provides a more secured digital identity as the solution is starting to gather data for threat detection during the identity verification process (device fingerprinting, start building the digital user profile etc.), but it also secures the most critical step of the authentication: the authentication onboarding. Indeed, when successfully completing the identity verification process, the authentication credentials can safely be issued to the right user.

The demand for identity verification solutions is driven by regulatory pressures and by inefficiencies in investigative techniques. What methods should the banking sector adopt to create secure/trusted transactions?

I think identity verification for digital onboarding is mainly driven by the extension of the digital world and the technology evolution (better quality of mobile cameras, better face recognition algorithms and so on).

As explained before, linking the identity verification and the authentication processes greatly improves the overall digital identity security. So, in order to better secure transactions, banks have to deploy solutions that are provided by digital identity specialists who are able to protect the full digital identity lifecycle.

Do you think mobile ID verification can be the answer to preventing identity fraud?

I don’t believe there is one silver bullet to completely prevent identity fraud. However, by proposing mobile ID verification to their customers, banks not only reinforce the security of the digital ID but also provide a seamless user experience that has a direct impact on the efficiency of new customer onboarding by facilitating account creation and diminishing application drop out. It also smooths the KYC process that is constantly evolving and that brings high cost for banks.

Until now, banking has been predominantly about physical trust. How does HID Global enable them to continue this trend in a digital world over the next 5 years?

As discussed in this paper, more and more (banking) operations can be made online. But this expansion will be successful only if the end-customer feels safe and don’t see his money and data being stolen. In order to ensure this right level of security, banks have to secure in priority the digital identity of the end-user. That is why HID Global is building a holistic trusted digital identity platform where banks will have a full view from end-to-end on the digital identities of their end-customers. This platform will be made of identification, authentication, and orchestration of the whole processes. This will ensure banks to consistently protect the digital identity of the end-customers but also this will allow banks to better know their customer and therefore to better customise their user experience depending on their profile, on their habits, and on their needs. And finally, having one single provider for a holistic trusted digital identity platform simplifies banks’ life and reduces costs.

HID Global is proposing today a consistent identification and authentication solution to banks and is leading a development plan to bring more value and more security to the banks. Working with us is a guarantee to be ready for the future.

The interview was first published in the Digital Onboarding and KYC Report 2020, which offers insightful editorials on topics such as digital onboarding best practices and key challenges, financial crime and how to fight it, crypto, and more.

About Olivier Thirion de Briel

Olivier Thirion de Briel is Global Solution Marketing Director for financial services at HID Global. In this role, Olivier leads the banking strategy and product marketing for the IAM solutions business unit.

About HID Global

HID Global provides trusted identity authentication and lifecycle management for people, places, and things. Our modern approach to authentication incorporates an adaptive, risk-based methodology, providing frictionless and continuous experience. Organisations can protect digital identities and accurately assess cyber-risk, by delivering trusted transactions and empower smart decision-making, while going beyond just simple compliance.