Fingerprint biometrics are central to several of the most-read news items of the week on Biometric Update, with developments in both the science and market. Researchers have developed a way to render prints in 3D, while Zwipe is shifting its biometric card focus from payments to access control, and an Xperix scanner has been added to a passkey platform. Elsewhere, selfie biometrics providers notch customer wins, SDO raises money, Worldcoin hits a milestone in South America, and Socure updates its fraud detection platform.

Top biometrics news of the week

Ethiopians will need to hold the national digital ID, Fayda, to access government services at some point in the near future. The government is working on integrating public services with the digital ID while also signing people up for it. Less than 4 million have it so far, and the new goal is to get to 90 million by 2028, raising doubt about how quickly the government will be able to require Fayda for services.

Worldcoin has enrolled the iris biometrics of half a million Argentinians, and is one of three countries where more than 1 percent of the population now has its digital ID. The World App has also been updated to make scheduling enrollments easier. Orb verification have surpassed 3 million in total.

Selfie biometrics from Yoti have been integrated into an app that reports rent payments for credit scores in the UK, as identity verification and authentication with mobile devices continues to expand. New deals have been signed in different sectors for face biometrics from Daon and iDenfy, and FaceTec client Zengo is challenging hackers to try to break into its digital wallet. An ID R&D cofounder says this year will present challenges to KYC platforms.

A process for developing 3D fingerprint biometric images using digital holography has been developed by a professor in the U.S. His lab uses a nanoscale columnar thin film layer to preserve fingermarks and then create a hologram from them, before reconstructing the fingerprint as a 3D image. The innovation comes on the heels of researchers’ claim that similar patterns among fingerprints from the same person can be matched with AI.

The dream of a mass market for payment cards with built-in fingerprint authentication is over for Zwipe, as the company turns its focus to biometric cards for access control. The turn away from its Pay product line and towards Access is part of a plan for Zwipe to improve cash flow by $3.8 million over the next two years.

Passkey platform IDmelon Orchestration has integrated Xperix’ flagship fingerprint scanner to provide passwordless authentication for account access. The partners say the deal with lead to the scanners being deployed for industries like retail, manufacturing, health and financial services. Xperix’ corporate cousin Suprema was at Intersec 2024 this week, along with RecFaces, Princeton Identity, Invixium, Genetec and Iris ID.

A man in Punjab, India was caught trying to impersonate his girlfriend so he could take a university exam in her place, the Deccan Herald reports. A fingerprint biometric check revealed the fraud attempt, and the police were summoned.

Secret Double Octopus has raised an unknown amount of money in a series C funding round, with the firm revealing only that it has reached $15 million since 2022. The company’s series B was a $15 million round in 2020. The company plans to expand its global partner network and bring passwordless authentication to new markets.

Namibia has extended its deadline for linking SIMs to digital IDs to the end of March, after which service suspensions are expected. Improper SIM registration has prompted Russia to block 600,000 mobile accounts in a 4 month span, and Kenya’s central bank is worried about the prospect of remotely registered SIMs being used for fraud in that country. In-person registration guarantees little, however, as shown by a bust in Pakistan.

A software update from Socure ties data points together as a holistic continuum to fight third party fraud, account takeover and synthetic identity fraud attacks. Synthetic identities are the fastest-growing financial crime in the U.S., according to Deloitte, and a new white paper shows 87 percent of lenders have extended credit to them.

NIST should take the lead on setting standards for facial recognition technology and its use in the United States, a report produced for DHS and the FBI says. There are some concerns among some observers, however, about the organization’s capacity to take on much more of a load of responsibility.

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