The UK Government plans to update laws on identity checking to enable digital identity to be used as widely as possible. At the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman said: “Digital technology is helping us through the pandemic and continues to improve the way we live, work and access vital services. We want to make it easier for people to prove their identity securely online so transactions can become even quicker – it has the potential to add billions to our economy.”
In summer 2019, the DCMS and the Cabinet Office made a ‘call for evidence‘, to seek views ‘on how government can support the development and secure use of digital identities fit for the UK’s growing digital economy’. The Government then spoke of ‘a pragmatic approach to international digital identity standards’, wanting to develop digital identity use in government and a legal framework; all done securely.
The Government is looking into how secure checks could be made against government data. A Document Checking Service trial has begun to run about a year, to give access to digital services which require identity checks, such as online mortgage applications, financial services and recruitment on-boarding. An aim also is to help organisations tackle fraud and test if there is a market for such a digital identity checking service. As Government acknowledges, according to the counter-fraud trade association Cifas, ID fraud is on the rise.
According to the Government, there’s ‘global momentum behind the use of digital identity as a tool to combat harmful practices such as money laundering and terrorist financing’. It says it’s ‘considering options’ to ensure citizen online accounts and data are adequately safeguarded, reducing opportunities for cyber crime and offences that stem from cyber crime.
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At the CBI, Felicity Burch, Director of Innovation, described it as an important step towards creating a robust digital identity system in the UK. “A framework based on privacy, transparency and interoperability will bring many benefits to individuals and firms, providing greater access to online services and increasing productivity. The CBI supports the government’s ambitions to create a digital ID framework that can help protect consumers and unlock economic growth, and looks forward to collaborating with DCMS and the Cabinet Office to make this a reality.”
At the cyber product firm McAfee, Adam Philpott, VP EMEA said: “With our daily lives increasingly reliant on online interactions, and identity fraud on the rise, it’s encouraging to see the UK government’s Digital Identity Strategy Board put forward six principles to guide the widespread roll-out of digital identities in the UK – putting privacy and security first from the outset.
“Cyber is not a cost – it’s an investment. If we are to make digital identities the norm, we need to ensure user confidence is not misplaced. After all, cybercriminals are quick to turn their attention to the latest potential vulnerability, and the possibility of accessing digital identities – and the resulting money to be made by selling them on – will be hard to resist for cyber thieves.
“With a strong framework in place, and standards for international and domestic inter-operability, these measures will help to inspire consumer confidence and allow UK businesses to grow their online presence while prioritising data privacy and security.”
Those principles are, as set out in the DCMS-Cabinet Office response to the call for evidence: privacy, transparency, inclusivity, inter-operability, proportionality and good governance.
