“The company will use the new funding to accelerate its market expansion through new investments in sales, marketing, research & development and customer support initiatives. Socure’s vision is to identify the human race and eliminate 3rd party identity fraud. Socure’s mission is to become the single trusted source of identity verification.”

“Nok Nok Labs (Nok Nok), the trusted leader in next-generation authentication today announced that its partner Hitachi, Ltd., successfully deployed the Nok Nok™ S3 Authentication Suite (NNL S3 Suite) at MUFG Bank, Ltd. (MUFG Bank), Japan’s largest bank. MUFG Bank customers who are utilizing the internet banking service, now have a frictionless user experience that enables them to execute banking transactions faster and with strong security using global authentication-standards.”

“Central 1, creating digital solutions that make everyday banking easier, today announces the launch of technology that allows financial institutions to offer SecureKey Concierge^TM, a single sign-on authentication service, to their members. The seamless integration of Central 1’s product means financial institution customers can access additional online services using their existing digital banking credentials, providing fewer complex logins to remember and simplifying login access for over 80 government websites. Vancity credit union and Conexus Credit Union are launching the integration of SecureKey Concierge into their systems, providing the convenient and secure service to their members. “

“Students and staff at Temple University in the US can now use their iPhone or Apple Watch as their campus identification card. The programme, which was announced by Apple last year, allows holders of the University’s physical OWLcard to use their Apple device instead for a number of services around the campus. These include gaining entry to buildings, accessing facilities including computers and printers and to buy meals.”

“Financial service providers are looking forward to regaining access to Aadhaar-based verification after the Union Cabinet said it would seek approval from Parliament to amend laws that will allow banks and telecom companies to verify user details stored within the country’s largest identification database.”

“The database, which wasn’t protected by a password, contained 26 million text messages, some of which were two-step verification codes and password reset links, TechCrunch reports. When it was found, the database was still recording texts in near real-time, offering a huge resource for potential attackers. The database ran on Amazon’s Elasticsearch and used Kibana, a visualization and querying tool that made it possible to search through the mass of data for text strings and phone numbers, TechCrunch reports.”

“Widespread replacement of password-only authentication needs more than regulations. Without a set of standard protocols, organisations and companies will struggle to find an authentication technology that keeps them in line with security regulations while making their applications available to their users.”

“A coalition of the four largest U.S. wireless providers calling itself the Mobile Authentication Taskforce recently announced an initiative named Project Verify. This project would let users log in to apps and websites with their phone instead of a password, or serve as an alternative to multi-factor authentication methods such as SMS or hardware tokens. Any work to find a more secure and user-friendly solution than passwords is worthwhile. However, the devil is always in the details—and this project is the work of many devils we already know well.”

“FIDO2 browser support and first certified products are now available to reduce password use on the web, the FIDO Alliance announced today. Now, any website can leverage FIDO2 strong authentication protocols from the W3C and FIDO Alliance to replace passwords with cryptographically secure logins using convenient alternatives like on-device biometrics and FIDO Security Keys. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox browsers now support FIDO2, a big advancement since the standards were introduced last April. Between this support and newly certified products supporting a wide variety of use cases, service providers have all of the tools needed to roll out FIDO Authentication for their websites and applications. FIDO Authentication has been proven to protect against the phishing and security risks associated with passwords, provide better user experiences over remembering and typing passwords, and lower authentication support costs.”

“If Apple taught Indian consumers to unlock its new phones with a twitch of their eyes, Paytm is working on introducing facial recognition to enable digital payments.”

“Onfido’s technology leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to verify new users when they sign up, making it easy for Indiegogo to quickly onboard new campaigners to its platform.”

“Biometric user verification has become a popular way to replace passwords and PINs, but the lack of an industry-defined program to validate performance claims has led to concerns over variances in the accuracy and reliability of these solutions. To fill this gap, the FIDO Alliance today announced its Biometric Component Certification Program – the first such program for the industry at large. The program utilizes accredited independent labs to certify that biometric subcomponents meet globally recognized performance standards for biometric recognition performance and Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) and are fit for commercial use. “

“StrongKey announced today that it has been working closely with the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on a project to help retailers and e-commerce merchants reduce the risk of fraud by implementing multifactor authentication for risky transactions.”

“Entersekt, an innovator in mobile-first fintech solutions, announced it has signed an agreement with the GSMA to offer Mobile Connect to its institutional customers. Developed by the mobile industry as a universal mobile-device–based authentication service, Mobile Connect allows consumers across the globe to access their digital accounts via a single login.”

“However, in trying to persuade users to adopt second factors, advocates sometimes forget to disclose that all security measures have trade-offs . As second factors reduce the risk of some attacks, they also introduce new risks. One risk is that you could be locked out of your account when you lose your second factor, which may be when you need it the most.”