Enterprises are engaged in “high stakes” conversations with government regulators and others about Identity and Authentication data. That data is vital to the performance of to many of their products and services. Consider what happened when Apple moved from opt-out to opt-in for Facebook users. That simple change dramatically affected Facebook and its advertisers. In Feb 2022, the CFO of Meta declared that it might lose it may lose $10 billion in sales as a result, but that’s only one example.
These high-stakes conversations and negotiations affect prices, permits to sell, and public confidence in those products and services. Without curated data, enterprises of all sizes and locations simply won’t get to sell those products and services.
The ‘Supply Chains of Data’ are creating new demands and standards for identity (who is this person) and authentication (are you who you claim to be?). Governments, global colossal tech enterprises, medical and healthcare systems, and many other ‘systems’ depend on standards for identity and authentication. “Single sign-on” web-sites, social media, eCommerce, government services, and transactional commerce all depend on identity and authentication. Cultural, legal, and technical differences across global marketplaces are also stressed by identity documentation and using identity to authenticate actions and trace responsibility.
Global credit card transactions' losses ran to more than USD$32B in 2021. Fraudulent social media accounts may run into the millions. Identity theft is widespread and growing worldwide. Impersonation and fake accounts online damage reputations, government credibility, and enterprise brands with high frequencies. The need for clear data about identity and authentication has never been higher – and harder to get.
Biometric identities are used every day. Facial recognition, voice recognition, skin patterns (fingerprints, palm prints, finger geometries), retinal patterns, and various DNA-dependent recognition techniques and implementations exist. Each technology has its own problems. Government biometrics are in different stages of application in global marketplaces. The ‘unique’ character and complexity of DNA-dependent recognition techniques have promised – and promise problems. Governments, militaries, and enterprises want identity information (such as Microsoft and others desiring facial recognition, telephone numbers, and contact information) – and still can’t stamp out problems of authentication.
Every technology that seems promising (such as detecting whether a fingerprint sensor is seeing a real finger by infrared techniques) encounters some glitches (like the color of skin) and issues (like government retention or use on passports). Even pictures (facial recognition) have controversies with public access, racial differentiation, individual specificity (for example, with aging, medical procedures, or illnesses), and availability (children). The Supply Chain of Data is an ongoing and growing problem for identity and authentication.
Enterprises encounter identical problems dealing with each other. Authenticating a request from a business partner, financial institution, government agency, or customer sees even larger problems than those just of individuals. Proposed solutions (such as ‘web certificates’ or ‘public key repositories’) have seen roots of trust compromised. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and GoDaddy have acted to try and protect their customers and operations from faked certificates and authentication mechanisms. Penetrations and breaches like DigiNotar, Comodo, and other incidents have shown ‘trusted’ certificate weaknesses. Cracked encryption/signing mechanisms from Sony, Microsoft, and others have shown proposed ‘authentication’ mechanisms even for computer-code artifacts to be at risk in some cases. Ongoing research and continually improving mechanisms are hopeful progress – though identification/identity and authentication for enterprises is still an evolving topic.
EkaLore has developed expertise and industry-specific knowledge over a long period about data collected by enterprises, on products, on services, and on the process of getting those to enterprise customers – individuals or other enterprises. In this series of releases, EkaLore will take a short look – sometimes related to other analyses and notes already released – at data and why it matters so much to all enterprises, tiny to colossal.
You can find more articles on our website at www.ekalore.com/ars and www.ekalore.com/bad-project-blog
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