This week at Mobile ID world we reported the news on everything from mCommerce and privacy policies to physical access control and biometric healthcare. Meanwhile in the featured articles section we kicked off Cloud Authentication Month with a primer.
Speaking of cloud services, a new file storage app hit the App Store this week called Lockbox. The app leverages the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on iOS 8 devices to add a level of biometric security to document and file storage.
Biometric security and Apple technology are becoming a major topic of discussion now that Apple Pay is expected to launch later this month and the Internet is still talking about recent high profile security breaches. Tim Cook went on record this week with Apple’s official stance on privacy, promising the most user confidentiality he could.
This week Nok Nok Labs announced that its NNL S3 Authentication Suite now supports Trusted User Interface (Trusted UI) for secure mobile payments. Trusted UI is being made available through Trustonic’s ARM TrustZone-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). The Trusted UI integration protects against malware attacks by isolating all authentication and transaction verification from the Rich OS. The overall aim with the new functionality is to provide greater end-to-end security. It is designed to be backwards compatible as well, supporting PIN pad authentication where biometric authenticators are unavailable.
Keeping with the topic of mCommerce, Canadian direct bank Tangerine (formerly “ING Direct”) has announced that it will install biometric authentication security to its mobile banking services, becoming the first Canadian bank to integrate such technology. Meanwhile, Capital One finally made an official introduction of its Apple Pay compatible mobile wallet app which has been available in the App Store since September.
This week eBay Inc. announced that PayPal, its online payment subsidiary, will go its separate way as a publicly traded company in 2015. With its coming freedom from the eBay ecosystem, PayPal is hoping to be nimble enough to negotiate this market more effectively, and in so doing will very likely be developing some biometric security measures of its own.
Speaking of online payment, South Korean mobile retail giant SK planet Co., Ltd. (SKP) announced plans to acquire shopkick, Inc., the popular US-based shopping app. Touted as a major win-win for both companies, the partnership will allow SKP to increase its global market share while endowing shopkick with the resources and assets that come with its affiliation considerable business affiliations.
A number of news items this week centered around remote healthcare and vital biometrics. Care Innovations, a joint venture between Intel and General Electric Healthcare, partnered with Dignity Health to provide remote care to patients using a suite of services including biometric health monitoring, while HealthLoop, an online health management platform connecting doctors and patients, has released an iOS 8-compatible app designed to work with Apple’s HealthKit for similar deployments.
That’s not all, e-health firm American Well launched its Amwell app for iOS 8 this week. The app will also integrate with Apple’s HealthKit platform to provide users with a telehealth-like service via their mobile devices.
BIO-key International announced a new piece of technology this week that it’s calling revolutionary: a new, compact and low cost fingerprint reader named SideSwipe.The SideSwipe Mini-Reader is priced at $34.99, connects to any device with a USB and is ideal for banking, retail, enterprise and commercial applications.
We got to talk about mobility and access control this week with HID Global announcing a new solution that transforms trusted Android and iOS devices into credentials meant to replace keys and smart cards. HID Mobile Access is powered by HID’s Seos technology, an aspect that the company believes will open up the potential for it to be used for PC login, time and attendance, EV charging and biometrics applications in the future.
Finally, The Natural Security Alliance announced that mobile security technology company certgate has joined its consortium in the fight for strong and convenient authentication standards. certgate’s latest technology, the cgToken, is a wireless keychain containing a secure element. The token is platform independent and, according to Natural Security, a perfect fit for the Alliance.
Stay posted to Mobile ID World throughout the coming week as we continue to bring you all the mobile identity management news that matters most. Be sure to follow us on Twitter so you don’t miss a beat.
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