Lollapalooza is no small affair with more than 160,000 fans and hosts some of the biggest names in music. Ticketing and payments have also gone high-tech. Attendees don NFC wristbands that eliminate the need to carry cash, tickets or payment cards, simplifying purchasing and securing the festival for attendees and vendors alike.

A major stumbling block in using high-assurance credentials is getting them into the hands of consumers. Enter step-up authentication, a system that takes a credential that a consumer already has and add higher-levels of assurance to it.

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 surge in the use of adaptive authentication has many ramifications for general authentication, but perhaps the most interesting is its impact on elevated authentication. This is where elevated will see its second act.

The march toward a paperless tomorrow has made its way to the Iowa Department of Transportation, where officials have been weighing the concept of a digital driver license. The idea is simple. Put the plastic credential in the smart phone already carried by a majority of residents. But simple ideas are often complex executions.

In the past 40 years, fingerprint science has moved from examiners studying ink-stained sheets with magnifying glasses to Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS), which use computer systems and software to pull up possible matches. There is still a human element to these systems as they have grown in use outside of law enforcement to conduct background checks and for other purposes.

Connecting a physical access control system to an Internet-enabled backbone can ease a lot of pain for the end user. IP technology simplifies the infrastructure and can be more cost effective and easier to use. Still, some question if putting these systems online makes them more vulnerable.