Secure Citizen: Enabling secure digital identity for enterprises and individuals

OneVault is proud to announce the launch of Secure Citizen, a joint venture with the South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS).

OneVault, well known in the South African environment as a focused provider of voice biometric solutions, engaged with SAFPS, a not-for-profit and the custodian of fraud prevention in South Africa to establish a much-needed solution that facilitates the ability of a corporate enterprise and a consumer to establish a secure, digital identity.

Working in close collaboration with Contactable, Secure Citizen is an identity management platform that digitally allows corporate customers and consumers to on-board remotely through multiple channels, establishing and validating identity through an array of third-party data, which includes biometrics.

Digital transformation

One of the advantages of Secure Citizen is that it will give companies a much-needed advantage when it comes to Know Your Customer (KYC).

“We like to think Secure Citizen is relevant, appropriate, fit-for-purpose and affordable. The platform will also mature over time and add more value. The platform is market tested and already in use and provides the concept of a trusted identity ecosystem. This is something that many organisations, individuals and governments have been striving to attain. We believe that Secure Citizen is being launched at a time when the market (both locally and internationally) is ready and, importantly, has a real need for it,” says Paul Hutton, CEO of OneVault.

He added that if companies are serious about identity management and are intent on digitally transforming their enterprise, the Secure Citizen solution should be seriously considered. New ways of work as well as the associated new ways of engagement are forcing enterprises to sit up and change their business processes to enable them to attract and retain customers. The added benefit is that using this type of identity solution can manage and mitigate identity and associated fraud risk in a fashion that utilises technology in an efficient, secure and convenient manner.

Identity platform

What benefits will a corporate client get when they purchase Secure Citizen?

“Clients will be purchasing a platform that will enable them to onboard consumers digitally by using the consumer’s biometrics, which are seamlessly checked through multiple third-party sources – including the Department of Home Affairs. This will give them the security that they are dealing with the correct consumer and not a fraudster from account origination stage. This peace of mind will be carried right through the life cycle of the interaction with the consumer,” said Van Schalkwyk.

Corporates can verify the consumer every time he/she makes contact. Examples of this could be to increase their limit or to make basic changes to their contact information such as changing their address, or telephone number, or for every transaction if the risk profile of the interaction or the corporate client requires it.

Biometric backbone

An important differentiator of Secure Citizen is its biometric backbone, which runs in the background of every transaction.

“Face and voice biometrics are used as part of a frictionless digital customer onboarding process to determine that the person is who they say they are and create their digital identity. The facial biometrics captured are compared to independent golden source databases using an AI-enabled platform that performs various biometric comparisons. The platform is further enabled to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) combining various biometric algorithms (face, voice, palm and print) to then further authenticate the customers' identity in future,” says Shaun Strydom, CEO of Contactable.

He adds that it is important to note that this platform does not prefer one kind of biometric over another. Rather, it uses a combination of biometrics as well as layering of data attributes that together ensure you are dealing with the correct person. This makes it extremely difficult for fraudsters to successfully bypass the system.

“The digital and low-touch economy (social distancing) is a reality and is here to stay. COVID-19 has further accelerated this transformation. Customers can now exercise choice. They want control of their identity, personal information and consents back. Further, they want the freedom to engage in the digital economy through technology they can trust. Secure Citizen has been designed to address these realities through a fully federated identity as a service platform that manages the customer identity life cycle to reduce identity fraud while also simplifying the compliance and processes needed to service the customer by corporates across multiple ecosystems,” says Strydom.

Easy onboarding

Secure Citizen brings corporate clients and their customers to the forefront of highly secure digital identity management while providing them with the flexibility and ease of use to interact with each other confidently and seamlessly.

Technology is often confusing, and clients are looking for systems that offer simplicity and easy on-boarding. With Secure Citizen, corporate clients can on-board consumers by using multiple channels including SMS, WhatsApp, Web site and the corporate client’s own mobile application.