Setting up an identity online is a pretty easy task. A few fake social media accounts, an email address, and a slick-looking website made from a smoothly animated, responsive template, and within a few minutes, there’s a fully-public identity presented to the world.

For anyone setting up a business, that’s a massive plus; for security specialists, the anonymity of data presents quite a different set of challenges, usually centered around determining which information is genuine, and which is presented under false pretenses.

In the last article on digital identity published on Tech Wire Asia, we looked at some of the issues surrounding proving personal identity, and touched on how the balancing act that businesses and organizations (including national governments) have to perform to let individuals prove who they are in a timely, digitally-native way, and yet do so with a high degree of care.

In this digital age, it’s not just people that need to prove who they are; data is the new medium of transaction, and billions of transactions take place every second between institutions, websites and apps. Governments, institutions, banks and businesses all need to be sure that every transaction is from a genuine source, and the people or companies behind the transactions are verifiable. Similarly, the end-users need to operate in a trusted framework, sure that the institutions with whom they are connecting are genuine.

For this to happen, there will be some key processes to undertake first. These could start from identifying the end users in a typical “know your customer” (KYC) process, to the issuance of the credentials and lastly to the on-going usage of the issued credentials for their transactions going forward. The need to validate the end user’s identity will be key to establish the initial trust to the identity. As such, a digital on boarding or remote ID proofing solution would be key to KYC process, especially in the E-KYC process.

From there on, the protection of the identity to the interchange of data would require secure issuance of the credentials in some form of multi-factor authenticators from different form factors like mobile, hardware fobs and so on. In parallel, there would be a need for the connected devices to establish trust with the end users every single time there is a connection to them for the end users to transact. These would be a push of trusted certificates to protect and authenticate these devices.

In many cases, the speed of digitization of services and the way organizations need to conduct their activities is outstripping the capability to ensure that information interchange is safe, secure, and involves genuine parties. One company, Entrust Datacard, has been helping governments and businesses of all sizes to manage identity since before the internet really took off – for 50 years.

Its work continues in the always-on, fast-moving digital world, and its capabilities mean that it’s probably the only identity assurance company that has the types of solutions that are required when businesses want to move as quickly as digitization allows them.

In the previous article, we looked at personal identity verification online, and the different tiers of assurance that are needed: whether it’s for access to a closed community online (like a VIPs’ Shopping Club) or to issue passports, drivers’ licenses, and ID documentation. Entrust Datacard is behind all these facilities all over the world, and as new technology emerges and takes root in everyday life, its product line alters and adapts accordingly, as required.

Take the example of a virtual bank. With a decreasing need for bricks-and-mortar physical premises, e.g. bank branches, almost every financial institution offers online banking facilities, and this is more true for virtual banks where they do not even have the same reliance of the physical premises to their services. Their only option would be to provide a robust and secure yet easy to use services for their end customers. Removing physical premises also removes the possibilities for presentation of irrefutable identity documents before any transactions. Proving the validity of identity, and the validity of each transaction are two challenges that are at the heart of the new banking paradigm.

Entrust Datacard is already at work here; rather than individual institutions having to invest heavily in new tranches of technology themselves, many organizations now use Entrust Datacard’s cloud-based authentication solution, IntelliTrust. With no software to deploy and workflow engines that automate tasks, organizations can pursue their plans and strategies without compromising their systems, and create agile, innovative new products and services.

Based in Minnesota, USA with a worldwide reach, Entrust Datacard offers products that ensure maximum security through verifying people, things and entire organizations. When you connect via an app to your bank, you need to know that the devices responding as you tap in a PIN are what they purport to be. Similarly, high-end financial institutions need to be sure that you are whom you claim to be, not someone masquerading as you who will compromise their systems.

As digital economies spread their tendrils across the globe, and the world produces, processes and exchanges more data, it’s good to know that despite the anonymity that’s built into the internet, one company helps protect and ensure identities. Get in touch with an Entrust Datacard representative local to your organization today with your specific requirements.