News in Brief

BruneiID: A National Digital Identity With On-Device Biometric Login

Brunei’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) and Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC) have introduced Brunei Identity Digital (BruneiID), a national digital identity designed to provide single-login access to selected government digital services.

BruneiID is an electronic form of identification for citizens and residents, with identity verification linked to existing Brunei identity card information.

The biometric authentication is performed locally on the user’s device. In practical terms, ‘on-device’ biometrics typically means the biometric check (such as face or fingerprint) is matched within the phone’s secure environment and used only to unlock an authenticator on the device, rather than sending biometric data to a central matching system. This architecture aligns with modern authentication patterns where cryptographic credentials are bound to the device and biometrics serve as a local user-verification step to authorise sign-in.