Over the course of 2015, re:ID looked at the state of national eID credentials, breaking down the global market into key regions. The final installment of the series focuses on the Middle East, a region that in 2016 expects to see a significant boom in the number of issued eIDs.

The rise of eID credentials is a trend that’s made landfall with countries in virtually every corner of the planet – but not every corner. The Americas lie in direct opposition to one another in terms of their implementation of national eID credentials. South America has a stable of countries, eight as of 2015, with eIDs. North America, however, is yet to climb aboard while Central America and the Caribbean fall in the middle both geographically as well as in the adoption of eID.

The second installment of the re:ID eID series highlights Asia. The countries with the most significant influences in the region are those with the largest populations, China and India. The growth of eID issuance in Asia will greatly hinge upon how these countries have and will decide to implement and issue credentials to their citizens.

When is comes to identification on a national level, the landscape is changing at an incredible rate. At the tip of the spear are electronic identity credentials that are being used to do far more than just prove an identity. In an attempt to better understand the macro-level trends and underlying dynamics, throughout 2015 re:ID will explore eID initiatives on a region-by-region basis. First stop, Europe.

The stalwart of biometric authentication has long been fingerprints, with implementations ranging from high-security physical access to unlocking a mobile phone. But while other biometric modalities have made public strides in recent years, the fingerprint has been quietly taken for granted as a secure authenticator. Some are offering a new spin on the old modality by enabling it to be touchless.

Physical access control specifications for government buildings are complex. Making sure they’re deployed correctly is paramount and a set of classes from the Smart Card Alliance are designed to instruct engineers of what to do.

Making the jump to online identity vetting and benefits applications makes sense for many reasons, not the least of which is convenience, but there are concerns that must to be addressed to ensure these systems are secure as well as easy to use. Vetting an identity online can be a tricky business, but thankfully, there are entities working to ensure that a citizen applying for Medicaid, child welfare or similar service is who they claim to be.

Gemalto’s Protiva Cloud Confirm is compatible with HP CloudSystem under the HP Helion cloud portfolio; FIME extended its ISO quality assurance accreditation under ISO17025; the Open Standard for Public Transport Alliance revealed that São Paulo Transporte and Swiss Post Solutions will utilize its CIPURSE standard; and Ram Shriram, a founding board member of Google and former executive at Amazon.com, has joined strong authentication specialist Yubico

Moldova launches new ePassports with supplemental access control via Gemalto; SecureKey shows cloud auth platform and supports hackathon at APIcon; Lieberman study shows growing password fatigue and poor password management processes by enterprises; HID Global demos secure print authentication solutions at eNgage event.

A new a smart card system in Egypt is being used to distribute subsidized bread, cutting wheat consumption and alleviating government waste and foreign services. The new pilot represents an attempt to find a solution to Egypt’s vital bread subsidy system that has been plagued with corruption and waste in the past.