Digital identity is how people and organizations prove who they are online. It’s changing quickly.

The layers

– Workforce identity: employees signing in with single sign-on, MFA, and passkeys through systems like Microsoft Entra ID

– Customer identity: how customers create accounts and sign in to your services

– Government and verifiable credentials: digital IDs and wallets that let people prove facts, such as age or qualifications, without sharing everything

What’s changing

– Passkeys are replacing passwords for many services

– Digital wallets: the European Union is rolling out European Digital Identity Wallets under its eIDAS 2.0 framework, with member states required to offer them by the end of 2026. Canada is developing its own trust frameworks and pilots at federal and provincial levels, and details differ by jurisdiction. Check current status.

– Verifiable credentials: cryptographically signed claims that can be checked quickly, without a central database lookup

– Stronger identity verification to combat fraud, including deepfake-resistant checks

Why it matters to businesses

– Fraud and account takeover are driven by weak identity controls

– Onboarding and compliance: digital verification can speed up customer and employee onboarding

– Privacy: minimal-disclosure credentials reduce the personal data you need to collect and protect, which helps with Law 25

– Customer experience: fewer passwords and smoother sign-in

What to do now

1. Strengthen workforce identity: MFA everywhere, passkeys for admins, Conditional Access

2. Review customer sign-in: offer MFA or passkeys, and monitor for fraud

3. Collect less data, and keep only what you need

4. Watch standards for digital credentials in your industry

5. Plan identity verification for high-risk transactions, such as payment changes and new account requests

The principle

Identity is the foundation of security. Investing in it pays off across everything else.

DBR Soft can help you modernize identity and sign-in security. Contact us for more information.