Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:
Senator Calls for Investigation Into Russia’s Use of American Tech
US Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is calling for a federal investigation into the use of American-made processors in Russia’s biometric surveillance infrastructure. It’s a response to a recent Reuters report that identified Russia’s facial recognition vendors. While three of the vendors are Russian and a fourth is Belarusian, the report found that some have used chips from Intel and NVIDIA. Both American companies say they stopped shipping chips to Russia when sanctions were imposed last year, though there are indications that their processors continued to flow into the country through third parties after the fact.
Facing Mass Arbitration Fees, Samsung Changes Terms of Service
Samsung has altered its Galaxy mobile devices’ terms of service in an effort to shield itself from a legal strategy that now seems to be backfiring in a dispute under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The company had required arbitration in disputes over its devices’ alleged collection of face biometrics; but after plaintiffs demanded arbitration en masse, Samsung refused to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars in fees that would be required to facilitate the proceedings. Its terms now require Galaxy users to undergo a 60-day dispute resolution process with Samsung representatives, and would batch arbitration disputes into groups of 50 customers when claims are being made at that scale. The legal proceedings are ongoing.
Daon Targets Healthcare Sector With Automated Vending Partnership
Daon is extending its reach to the healthcare sector, announcing a new partnership that will see its pioneering identity verification software used in an automated vending machine for controlled products such as clinical drugs. The company has not yet named its partner, but promises a preview of the planned solution at this year’s HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition. Daon is also pitching its IdentityX platform at the healthcare sector more broadly, noting that its technology can be used to enable passwordless authentication for access to medical records and prescriptions, and for remote onboarding of healthcare workers and staff, among other applications.
Imprivata Launches Digital Identity Assessment Tools
Healthcare-focused identity solutions provider Imprivata has launched two new, free-to-use tools that the company says are designed to let healthcare organizations plan and assess their own digital identity systems. “Our maturity model and assessment remove the intimidation of implementing, or optimizing, a digital identity strategy that improves security and compliance while enabling clinical staff to better serve patients,” explained CTO Wes Wright. The “Digital Identity Maturity Model” and the “Digital Identity Maturity Assessment” are available through Imprivata’s website.
Okta Integrates With Singaporean Digital ID System
Okta has integrated its Customer Identity and Access Management service with Singpass, Singapore’s digital identity system. The move is aimed at letting private sector organizations leverage the identity verification infrastructure built around SingPass. It’s the latest indication of the growing prominence of Singpass as an identity tool, after the country’s largest hospital network began trialing a biometric visitor identification system based on SingPass earlier this year, and a mobile ID feature for bus and taxi drivers was added to the Singpass platform near the start of this month.
‘Chameleon’ Trojan Can Disguise Its Icon on Android Phones
A newly-discovered Android trojan, dubbed “Chameleon” by cybersecurity researchers, is capable of keylogging, harvesting SMS messages, launching overlay attacks, and stealing cookies and even a mobile device’s lock passcode. To make matters worse, it can change its app icon to disguise itself. Cybersecurity experts recommend the use of fingerprint or facial recognition for device unlock in order to help guard against the malware, which has so far been circulating mainly in Australia and disguising itself as the cryptocurrency exchange CoinSpot.
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April 14, 2023 – by Alex Perala
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