Eftpos (electronic funds transfer at the point of sale) has become the first accredited non-government operator of a digital identity exchange under the Australian federal government's Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF).

A recent news item on BBC News has reported on the arrest of ten people, in London and Kent, on suspicion of supplying fraudulent passports to more than 100 high-level organised criminals.

Optical & Digital Document Security (ODDS) combines two successful conferences, Optical Document Security (ODS) with Digital Document Security (DDS). Reconnaissance International is now bringing them together into THE technical conference for physical, digital and virtual document security, which takes place in Vienna, Austria, 17-19 January 2022.

Land holders across the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), or Laos as it is more commonly known, including some of the most vulnerable households, are expected to benefit from improved land administration and titling thanks to a project approved by the World Bank.

Australia’s new Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) Certificates have been launched nationally and are now available to the public. State governments around the country are promoting the new design – which was created by the Note Printing Australia (NPA) Design Team – with a particular focus on the increased security of the certificate to prevent identity fraud.

French government agency Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés (ANTS) will be teaming up with IDEMIA to support the national digital identity program, called ‘France Identité Numérique’.

Following the recent redesign of the German national identity card, a mobile ID wallet app has been released and the digital proof of a driving licence issued.

Ahead of the 6 November governorship election in Anambra State, Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that each voter has to enrol their identity in its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Some Zimbabweans, including political party officials, are raising concerns following the award of a contract for the production of the country’s biometric passports to Belgian firm Semlex.

HID Global, a worldwide provider of trusted identity solutions, has announced the acquisition of Omni-ID, a manufacturer of RFID tags and industrial IoT hardware devices for passive and active tagging, tracking, monitoring and alerting applications.

A private-public partnership of technology and healthcare companies called the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), which includes Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle and the Mayo Clinic, has created a verifiable digital proof of vaccination called the SMART Health Card.

A morning of beautiful sunshine and clear blue skies in London heralded an equally unfamiliar sight of crowds of ID and secure document professionals assembling in the ExCeL centre for the start of Identity Week 2021 (22- 23 September).

Thales has announced a payment card to include an onboard fingerprint sensor, promising improved security and usability – and an end to contactless payment limits.

Like them or loathe them, mutually recognised standards are the cornerstone of international trade. The recent release of a new ISO standard for product and document authentication (ISO 22383:2020) adds to a library of ISO standards that are reviewed in this edition of ID & Secure Document News™ and June’s edition of its sister publication, Authentication News®.

The Ghana Health Service, in partnership with the vaccine alliance Gavi and Arm’s network of partners, engineers and developers, will begin a biometric-based national vaccination program in October 2021 using contactless technology from non-profit UK technology company Simprints.

DATASONIC Group Bhd is reported to be in contention for the replacement contract for the Malaysian national identity card, otherwise known as MyKad.

On 6 January 2021 a mob stormed the US Capitol carrying placards bearing the ‘Stop the Steal’ emblem, which supported the notion that widespread voter identity fraud had distorted the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election. At the heart of the claim were allegations of vote rigging by a variety of means – most of which required voters taking on false identities.

Under national law, Argentinians have the right to identify themselves as gender neutral. But this has not been reflected in passports and National Documents of Identity (DNI), and residents have only been able to select ‘male’ or ‘female’.

The UK government has been accused of ‘constitutional ignorance’ after spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on contracts for a digital identity scheme before it had even launched a consultation into the project.

Digital ministers from the G20 group of leading world economies met in Trieste, Italy, at the beginning of August to further discuss digitalisation as a key enabler for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in its three economic, social and environmental dimensions, in line with the G20 priorities for 2021 of People, Planet and Prosperity.