Company News

Big Tech Joins Forces to End Passwords

Apple, Google and Microsoft have all agreed to implement the password-less system proposed by the FIDO Alliance.

The body, created by various technology companies in 2013 with the aim of ‘reducing the world’s reliance on passwords’, has announced that the three companies have committed to phasing out passwords. The agreement represents a big step in a challenge that the sector began to take seriously in 2016. They agree to recognise the problem: passwords are a burden for the user and the industry.

Recent studies reveal that a third of users repeat the same password, sometimes with minor alterations. The danger here is that if a cyber-attacker gets hold of one account password that is used for other sites, they can access the rest of the user’s profiles.

The consensus in the sector is to move towards biometrics, which many believe is the safest and most convenient way to access a profile. If a mobile phone has a fingerprint sensor or a facial reader, it is already using a biometric system. The FIDO passwordless identification standards are already being used in billions of browsers around the world.

Biometric technology marries both convenience and security. It is based on the three principles of security: something I know, a password; something I have, a card or mobile; and something I am, a fingerprint or iris.

ONE ZERO Digital Bank Chooses AU10TIX

The Bank of Israel, Israel’s central bank, has given ONE ZERO Digital Bank its stamp of approval to use AU10TIX›s technology to power its customer verification system and KYC (Know Your Customer) platform.

AU10TIX’s technology allows ONE ZERO Digital Bank to perform identity verification of new customers as part of the onboarding process as well as every activity that requires re-verification, such as making changes to a bank account or resetting a password.

The AU10TIX solution verifies a new customer’s identity by performing a biometric comparison of a submitted identification to a selfie.

In addition to verifying and re-verifying IDs, the AU10TIX technology is capable of identifying emerging advanced identity fraud, known as synthetic fraud, which is nearly impossible for the human eye to detect.

AU10TIX’s identity intelligence platform has been successfully implemented with many of the world’s largest companies, including PayPal, Google, Uber and eToro.

Identity intelligence and verification solutions are in ever-increasing demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated the move to remote work and business around the world. As the financial sector and payments moved to the digital world, the need to detect and overcome identity fraud became a top priority for many companies.

ONE ZERO Digital Bank has successfully completed a pilot program and is onboarding its first 75,000 new customers, who were on a waiting list. It has received regulatory approval from the Bank of Israel and begun onboarding those new customers with over 250 employees.

The company is also leveraging artificial intelligence, which enables bank employees to offer additional money management services by means of online chat and phone.

Bangladesh Considers User Fee for Digital ID Verification

The Bangladesh government may impose a small user fee on the country’s digital ID verification service to make the existing system financially self-sustaining.

The measure may increase the cost of government services that require identity verification, although specifics of how the fee will be imposed are yet to be decided.

Currently, Digicon Global Services provides identity verification services to government agencies free of cost. The company covers its expenses by charging private companies for the same services.

Digicon provides identity verification services through real-time E-KYC and the identity management platform Porichoy, which is connected to the Election Commission’s national database. The Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) owns Porichoy, including an app developed under the Bangladesh National Digital Architecture (BNDA) framework in collaboration with the ICT Division and Election Commission.

Sources said that Digicon had been making some money from private companies through their identity verification services, but the amount was not sufficient to meet all their expenses. As a result, the government has been subsidising the identity verification process.

Imposing an identity verification fee would not only help make the verification process self-sustaining, but also help generate revenue for the government, the sources added.

BCC sources said that Digicon had approached the government with the plan to earn revenue by charging fees from service takers.

According to the company’s proposal, the identity verification process will be governed by a public-private partnership, with Digicon and government agencies holding identity information, splitting the revenue from the verification fees.

Subsequently, the ICT Division tabled the plan before the Cabinet Division, which sent the proposal back and ordered that a feasibility study be undertaken.

Hague Expands with PSL Acquisition

Hague Group, which includes a range of security print services, has returned to the acquisition trail with a deal to buy Preston- based (UK) PSL Print Management – which offers a range of services to clients in the UK and Europe spanning design, print procurement, storage and distribution, and online ordering.

PSL was established in 1986 and serves clients including the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and other public sector bodies. It is a framework supplier on a number of publicly tendered contracts, including multiple Crown Commercial Services contracts.

In the pandemic-impacted financial year to 28 February 2021, PSL filed sales down 24% at £20.4 million and made an operating profit of £1.3 million. The prior year had been a record year for the business. It employs 55 staff.

Hague Group had sales of £28 million in 2020 and made an operating profit of £2.2 million. The firm said the deal will propel the group’s turnover to £50 million.

The terms of the takeover, which had been rumoured in print management circles for some time, were not disclosed. PSL was owned by its Managing Director Jim Gilliland, who will be 65 this year. He remains with the business as do PSL’s management, sales, admin and warehouse teams.

Hague Group Managing Director Graham Wain said the Hague team had known the PSL directors for many years and had been impressed by the firm’s ‘growth through innovation and the provision of exceptional services’.

Hague Group focuses on ‘value- added’ print services, including secure documentation, and is currently preparing to move to a new 3,484 m2 head office and warehouse site near to its existing facility. The business now has 11 locations across the UK.

Hague previously went on an acquisition spree in 2018-2019 that saw it buy three businesses in the space of six months, and has a print and distribution operation in Australia.