Earnings, Appointments, and Upgrades: Identity News Digest

Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

NIST Wants Feedback on Utilities Cybersecurity Pilot

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is calling for feedback on a proposed project that will pilot cybersecurity protections for a water treatment facility, which organizers hope will serve as a case study for a NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide that can offer broader guidance on how public utilities’ digital assets should be secured. The project is being organized by NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, and NIST will accept public comment until December 19.

UK Expands Surveillance and Ethical Oversight

The United Kingdom’s Home Office will issue fingerprint-scanning GPS fobs to track individuals who are subject to deportation orders in the UK, New Scientist reports. The aim is to ensure that law enforcement officials are able to track such individuals – convicted criminals who are not UK citizens – at all times, but requiring them to scan their fingerprints when prompted. The fobs are being developed by the English firm Buddi.

The Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group (BFEG), an independent advisory group to the UK’s Home Office, has had its mandate renewed and expanded for 2022/23. In addition to continuing to advise ministers on the Home Office’s biometric program and projects, the group will be asked to advise on ethical issues concerning “novel biometric technologies” such as gait and voice recognition, according to an official Gov.uk notice.

Sindh’s Top Cop Orders Facial Recognition Plan

The chief of police in the Pakistani province of Sindh has ordered Central Police Office (CPO) Karachi to begin planning for the deployment of face-scanning cameras at tollbooths across the province. A committee has been formed to draft recommendations concerning the implementation of the security system, which will be aimed at detecting and tracking known criminals and suspects.

Australian Police Help to Upgrade INTERPOL’s Child Exploitation Tracker

The Australian Federal Police will contribute $815,000 in funding to upgrade INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database with enhanced capabilities including facial recognition. The upgraded ICSE Next Generation system is “expected to significantly expedite” the work of victim identification specialists, the AFP explained in a statement.

Q3 Earnings From Trust Stamp, AuthID

Trust Stamp’s revenues are up 308.5 percent year-over-year in its Q3 update, coming in at $1.35 million. Its net loss, meanwhile came in at $3.44 million, compared to a net loss of $3.04 million a year ago. CEO Gareth Genner explained that the company has been benefitting from various government efforts to “update their security infrastructure and implement the latest solutions in privacy and biometrics.” Going forward, the company anticipates “a number of meaningful growth opportunities” in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ‘Alternatives to Detention‘ program, while Trust Stamp’s R&D team work on solutions that will target the “travel, healthcare, Metaverse platform, and cryptographic key and account credential safekeeping sectors.”

AuthID’s revenues for the third quarter came in at $0.03 million, compared to revenues of $0.2 million in Q3 of 2021. But its net loss steepened from $5.2 million a year ago to a net loss of $6.3 million in the latest quarter. CEO Tom Thimot said that ‘macro-economic headwinds’ had a negative impact on sales, but asserted that the company’s management believe AuthID has enough cash and credit to sustain operations through 2023, and that they expect “sales to ramp to support our revised target of reaching positive cash flow in late 2024.”

Executive Appointments at IDEX, Prove

IDEX Biometrics has appointed former Zwipe VP Claus Hansen as its Vice President of Sales for the APAC region. Hansen had served in a similar role for Zwipe since October of 2021, and has previously held VP positions with Entrust, KONA, and Gemalto, among others. Hansen will be based in Singapore.

Prove has named Nicole Jass as its Chief Product Officer and Scott Bonnell as its Chief Revenue Officer. Jass comes to the company from an almost seven-year tenure with FIS, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President of Product, Growth Solutions. Bonnell, meanwhile, had spent nearly six years with Twilio, departing that company from a position as Vice President of Enterprise Sales. “Nicole and Scott have grown companies from hundreds to billions of dollars in annual revenue,” said Prove CEO Rodger Desai. “They join an executive team that is poised to continue leading the multi-billion dollar digital identity market.”

Airport Biometrics Updates From CLEAR and SITA

United Airlines is now allowing customers to begin enrolment in CLEAR’s expedited screening program through its United mobile app. But to enjoy the benefits of faster security screening at the airport, users will still need to complete their enrolment by registering their iris and fingerprint biometrics in-person.

SITA will bring biometric boarding technology to the Bahrain International Airport, thanks to a new agreement with operator Bahrain Airport Company (BAC). The project will revolve around SITA’s Smart Path solution, which replaces the traveler’s boarding pass with their face. “Introducing this new biometric solution will further enhance the passenger experience, enabling travelers to pass through checkpoints faster and with less staff involvement, while ensuring every passenger who boards is who they say they are, with no room for human error,” commented BAC CEO Mohamed AlBinfalah.

Product Launches and Upgrades

Rank One Computing has delivered a number of technological improvements in an upgraded Software Development Kit for facial recognition and computer vision. Version 2.3 of the ROC SDK has a much more accurate single-frame passive liveness detection system, with an error rate that is two to five times lower across different spoofing mediums. It also has a new standalone Facial Analytics algorithm that can estimate dozens of facial features in under 50 milliseconds on a single CPU core, and its improved tattoo recognition algorithm has error rates that are an order of magnitude lower than the last published benchmark from the NIST Tattoo Recognition Technology Evaluation.

Spectrum Edge has signed on as Incode’s first Malaysia-based reseller. A Memorandum of Understanding established between the companies will see Spectrum Edge offer Incode’s ‘Omni’ identity verification solution to its partners. “With Spectrum Edge’s support, we are confident that we will supercharge our growth in Malaysia as we expand aggressively to meet the demand for our offerings across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Incode’s VP of EMEA & APAC, Andre Stewart.

iDenfy has launched an ‘Address Verification’ service as part of its identity platform. The system uses AI technology to extract information from images of address documents uploaded by end users; next, an in-house team reviews the information manually. “While verification speed is a crucial factor, we focus on providing secure proof of address verification services that allow meeting regulatory requirements while providing a frictionless onboarding experience for the customers,” explained iDenfy CEO Domantas Ciulde.

Digital image editing specialist ACDSee has launched a new version of its Photo Studio Mac editing and Digital Asset Management tool that features face detection and facial recognition capabilities. The features are meant to help users track individual subjects across multiple images during the editing process.

Chicago-based Keyo has rebranded and revamped its palm scanning authentication solution, announcing what it now calls the ‘Keyo Network’. It comprises the Keyo Wave biometric scanner, a Keyo Mobile App, Keyo Identity Cloud software, and a Keyo Partner Program & App Store. Founded in 2017, the company ended up erroneously pitching its solution as one that was compatible with Amazon’s newly announced biometric payment system in 2020. Now, CEO Jaxon Klein acknowledges that in those early days the company’s team was “probably a bit naïve in the beginning to underestimate the true complexity of this undertaking.”

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November 11, 2022 – by Alex Perala