Digital identity offers both opportunities and threats to businesses. Companies of all sizes have innovated and adopted ingenious ways to combat fraud and safeguard business assets. At the same time, criminals have broken new ground in navigating defenses and facilitating crime in the digital arena. It is a never-ending battle between organizations and criminals. According to the 2023 Annual Fraud Indicator, private sector fraud losses are at around £157.8 billion per year.

Imposters use digital technologies to bypass security and carry out illicit activities like money laundering or identity fraud. If such a crime is uncovered, this can have a serious impact on an organization’s credibility, especially PLCs who stand to lose customer and shareholder confidence.

With the threat of fraud at large, businesses need to incorporate a strong digital identity policy if they want to transact in confidence. There are many digital identity solutions and strategies available to companies that can help sift out criminals and maintain digital trust with customers.

Electronic Identity Verification (eIDV)

Customer onboarding is arguably the stage that organizations must perfect to stand any chance of securing new customers. The first point of interaction between a customer and a business, customers expect signing up to be a smooth, seamless and stress-free process.
When managing customer onboarding, businesses need to balance risk propensity with user experience, ensuring substance and style have been given equal consideration. If the onboarding sequence is too long and tiresome, prospects will abandon it, but if your onboarding process is not secure enough, those with malicious intentions can slip through the net.

Electronic identity verification (eIDV) solutions can help businesses achieve the desired outcome of a fast and secure onboarding process by analyzing a submitted identity document in real-time, whether physical or digital. eIDV solutions verify the security features on the ID card and deliver a score that either denies the applicant from continuing their customer journey or verifies their ID document as legitimate and able to continue to the next stage of onboarding.

Businesses that operate under strict regulations, such as banks, car rentals and hotels cannot let anyone under the age of 18 subscribe to their services or gain entry to their physical locations. The use of eIDV solutions ensures that only those who meet the age threshold can gain access with a quick scan of a submitted ID document. In terms of speed and security, eIDV solutions will accurately analyze physical and digital identity documents to help prevent digital fraud.

Biometric Authentication

Document authentication is insufficient on its own to secure your business against the threat of fraud and deception. Passwords can be guessed, and devices can be compromised, plus criminals now have access to artificial intelligence applications and editing software like Adobe Photoshop where they can easily spoof identity cards, characterized by the rise of deepfakes.

But further measures can be taken to fortify security by taking advantage of something that is unequivocally unique to each individual and cannot be replicated; biometrics. The fingerprints and face are characteristics that differentiate from customer to customer and through biometric authentication, businesses can secure their assets and ensure that customers are who they say they are.

Going one step further, liveness detection is an element of biometric authentication that can determine if an applicant is a live subject. With liveness detection, companies can protect against fraudulent applications by asking the user in real-time to perform a series of actions to match the biometrics of their face with the portrait image on their ID card. Because Liveness Detection is compatible with mobile devices, users can onboard from anywhere at any time, demonstrating the simultaneous values of convenience and resilience.

The Power of Data Integration

After collecting verified data and information of a customer through a set of procedures known as Know your Customer (KYC), it is important to validate and authenticate this data to ensure accuracy and reliability; this process is called the identification process.
Identification processes ensure that an individual’s identity is matched with pre-existing records and that this identity is authentic and trustworthy. Implementing a robust identification process is crucial in protecting personal information, ensuring compliance and maintaining the trust of customers and partners.

To help solidify the identification process, businesses need to harness the power of data. Navigating the online world is an unenviable task, especially when criminals can hide behind anonymity. Organizations need all the help they can get to combat potential fraud and by integrating with third-party databases, they can gain further insights into new and existing customers.

Integrating with datasets like the electoral register, credit risk agencies and the international sanctions watchlist adds further clarity when authenticating a digital identity. From the information stored within these external databases, businesses can determine if an applicant is eligible to apply for credit or if a customer lives at a specified address. By establishing an ecosystem of third parties connected through APIs, businesses can better navigate the online world and ensure that responsible customers continue to use their services while criminals and fraudsters are cut adrift.

What Makes Digital Identity Solutions so Useful for Businesses

To protect their best interests, companies must adapt and seek digital identity solutions to gain clarity and confidence in the murky ether of the online world. From a security perspective, digital identity solutions can help combat fraud by authenticating physical and digital ID cards. In terms of user experience, digital identity solutions lead to faster onboarding. Another point in question is that digital identity solutions can help build a more comprehensive profile of onboarded customers with the assistance of third-party integrations via APIs.

Digital identity is the future and businesses must continue to innovate in this sphere if they wish to remain competitive. By combining different digital identity technologies, organizations can provide a safe and efficient service for customers and withstand the deceptive tactics of criminals.