Digital Identity - the basis for all modern services

Digital Identity is the basis for all electronic services – not only banking. All websites, online services, IoT, connected cars etc. require that one knows reliably who is talking to who and what the rights of the connected partners are. We must identify not only people, but also software (TPPs accessing bank accounts) and things (cars, IoT device) reliably if we are to have a safe digital economy. Although we have made huge progress in developing digital services, the underlying basis – safe, consented identity – is still far from ideal. The scene is totally fragmented – every bank, merchant, country, device requiring different ways of signing in. Global Bigtechs are positioning themselves as being the single provider – e.g. sign in with Facebook – which is a trend not welcome by all. Regarding the technology, much of identity is still based ion the 1970s idea of passwords – leading to much frustration at users (managing the many ids) and merchants (cart abandonment) and is a big facilitator of cybercrime. There are much better, safer, more convenient, modern risk-based authentication methods available which make the customer journey much smoother and much reduce the risk of hackers getting in.