The US State Department has assembled 25,000 volunteers to try out the new online passport renewal program in advance of the service becoming available to the general public later in 2022.

Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior has pledged to sanitise the performance of professional service providers by improving the processing of visas, passports, marriages and citizenship applications.

Manufacturer of secure substrates Landqart and TECH5, an innovator in the field of biometrics and digital identity management, have announced a partnership agreement to provide a solution for certificate-based documents which are secure, durable, and biometrically verifiable against the holder.

Greek citizens can now create, store and present digital versions of their national identity card and driving licence using a digital identity wallet on their smartphone.

Currently, there are around 280 local authorities setting distinct rules, processes and fees for motorists wanting to obtain a taxi licence in the UK. But industry experts are now calling for plans to harmonise the procedures in line with the principles of ‘fill it out once’.

The role of the ID and secure document industry is to ensure that procedures and checks are in place that grant each citizen secure access to the rights and privileges that are associated with their unique identity.

The almost unlimited access to high-quality printing services, as well as to sophisticated graphics software, has increased the quality of document forgery in recent years to the point where it is becoming more difficult for border control officers to tell the difference between real and fake secure documents.

Perhaps spurred on by the unfounded allegations of US voters taking on false IDs during the last presidential election, the UK government introduced an Elections Integrity Bill which has been working its way through the UK parliament.

Identity verification company Credas Technologies has been certified to perform digital identity verification for the Right to Work, Right to Rent and anti-money laundering checks that are being mandated in the UK.

German health insurance firm BARMER has commissioned T-Systems and Verimi to provide and manage the digital identities of its 8.7 million policyholders. The contract has a term of seven years, and the companies have not disclosed the contract value.

The Finnish government is proposing a digital identification app in 2023 on smartphones and tablets that aims to prevent gender-based discrimination and promote work-based immigration.

Following consultations with various stakeholders over the past few weeks, Reconnaissance International, organiser of the High Security Printing Asia Conference scheduled to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 5-7 December 2022 has regretfully announced its postponement to 4-6 December 2023.

Nigeria’s National Identification Management Commission (NIMC) is tasked with assigning a unique National Identity Number and issuing General Multi-Purpose Cards to 148 million citizens by 2024.

Reconnaissance International is already preparing for The Holography Conference™ which will continue to be held online, taking place this year from 5-6 December.

An item in the BBC News technology section reports that laws governing biometric technologies are urgently needed, according to an independent legal review led by Matthew Ryder QC.

In an article published in June’s edition of Deloitte Insights, the consultancy firm sets out a new vision of identity and claims that the future of government rests on the future of identity.

The Biden administration will create a new identification card for immigrants that will serve as a single card to access immigration files and eventually be accepted by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for travel.

Veridos, a leading provider of integrated identity solutions, has acquired Valid USA’s identity solutions business to further grow its presence in the US market. A particular focus will be on enhancing its driving licence offering.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a US government lab that publishes standards for government agencies to safely use cryptography, has just announced the winners of a six-year-long competition to create quantum-safe algorithms.

Special awards have been made to a number of newly introduced ID documents that have demonstrated outstanding technical sophistication and excellence in design and security.