Entrust Enhances Identity Platform with AI-Powered Biometric Verification

Entrust Adds AI-Powered Verification to ID Platform | PYMNTS.com

Entrust has added artificial intelligence (AI)-powered verification to its identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) platform. The new offering, announced Tuesday (Jan. 21), is being introduced to respond to increasingly advanced forms of identity fraud. "In response to these threats, Entrust IDaaS now includes AI-driven biometrics, phishing-resistant passwordless multifactor authentication (MFA), adaptive risk-based authentication (RBA), and secure digital onboarding," the company said in a news release. The latest feature lets biometric data be stored directly on a user's mobile device instead of the cloud. This meets the needs of businesses that prefer on-device data storage to adhere to certain data protection regulations. "With fraud becoming more sophisticated, it's more important than ever that businesses establish verified identities from day one," said Bhagwat Swaroop, Entrust's president of digital security. "Failure to do so allows more bad actors through a business' front door, increasing fraud risks and forcing reliance on clunky step-up authentication methods at day two and beyond." He added that Entrust's facial biometric authentication -- with identity verification from Onfido, the company Entrust acquired last year -- lets clients confirm user identities throughout the user's lifecycle, helping businesses answer the question: "Is this user still the same person we onboarded at day one?" In other fraud prevention news, PYMNTS spoke Tuesday with Entersekt Chief Technology Officer Gerhard Oosthuizen, who argued for new approaches to authentication, ones that balance security concerns with a frictionless experience. "When looking at risk-based authentication, people have traditionally looked at it as a 'yes or no' decision," Oosthuizen said. But in the "always-on" world of eCommerce, those decisions are happening in shorter and shorter windows. As Oosthuizen said, it all needs to happen in real time -- in milliseconds -- but in many cases the information on which to base those decisions is limited or flawed. That leads to good transactions getting denied, or fraudsters making it past the bank's defenses. "Ultimately, the goal is to create an optimal experience and use the signals and the information available to let the 'right guy' in," Oosthuizen told PYMNTS. "If you get it wrong, you lose that client, they stop using the product, or they stop using your card if they've had a bad experience." "You can name so many websites," Lewis said, "whether it's TikTok or a gun manufacturer, alcohol or pornography site ... so many of them just say, 'Are you 18 or over' or 'Are you 13 and over? Click this button.' There's no proof."

Entrust introduces AI-driven biometrics

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. As cyber threats evolve and grow more sophisticated, businesses are facing escalating risks and financial losses. In 2024, 58% of large UK businesses revealed fraud and financial crime poses a serious threat to their organisations, up from 49% the year before, according to CIFAS. Similarly, CIFAS found that fraud currently accounts for 40% of all crime in England and Wales. Modern attacks, such as deepfakes, synthetic identities, and advanced phishing campaigns leveraging AI render traditional security measures increasingly insufficient. The 2025 Identity Fraud Report revealed digital forgeries now account for 57% of document fraud cases, a 244% increase on last year. Deepfake attempts, occurring on average every five minutes, now account for 40% of video biometric fraud attempts. In response to these threats, Entrust IDaaS now includes AI-driven biometrics, phishing-resistant passwordless multi-factor authentication (MFA), adaptive risk-based authentication (RBA), and secure digital onboarding. The newest feature allows the biometric data to be stored directly on a user's mobile device rather than in the cloud. This addresses the needs of businesses who prefer on-device data storage to comply with certain data protection regulations. It also enhances use cases such as securing privileged actions and high-value transactions through facial biometrics as a step-up authentication method without compromising on user experience. How it works The solution enables businesses to securely onboard users by capturing an encrypted biometric identifier, which is stored either on the user's device or within a secure customer business database. At moments of high risk, such as during account recovery or making a large financial transaction, users recapture their biometric for comparison against the original encrypted biometric identifier. This provides enhanced fraud prevention and protection, since physical biometrics are significantly harder to replicate or steal than credentials such as passwords or tokens. Additional benefits to businesses include: Enhanced Fraud Prevention: Effective against deepfakes, synthetic identities, and other advanced threats Phishing-Resistant Authentication: Eliminates vulnerabilities exploited by phishing attacks using passwordless methods Improved Data Privacy: Minimizes cloud-storage risks by enabling storing biometric data on end-user devices Streamlined User Experience: Reduces reliance on cumbersome methods like passwords or tokens, offering fast, intuitive authentication "With fraud becoming more sophisticated, it's more important than ever that businesses establish verified identities from day one," said Bhagwat Swaroop, President of Digital Security at Entrust. "Failure to do so allows more bad actors through a business' front door, increasing fraud risks and forcing reliance on clunky step-up authentication methods at day two and beyond. Entrust facial biometric authentication with Onfido identity verification offers an efficient, low-friction way to confirm user identities throughout the user's lifecycle, helping businesses answer the question: is this user still the same person we onboarded at day one?"