Entrust completes acquisition of ID verification provider Onfido

By Delisha Fernandes

Entrust, a global leader in trusted payments, identities, and data security, has completed its acquisition of Onfido, an identity verification provider.

With this completed acquisition, Entrust now provides the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of AI-powered, identity-centric security solutions. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“This acquisition comes at an inflection point in the industry,” said Todd Wilkinson, president and chief executive officer, Entrust. “With the acquisition of Onfido, our customers can leverage global-leading identity verification technology to meet the new challenges of cybersecurity in the age of AI. Identity-centric security is the starting point for Zero Trust frameworks and ensures a company’s cyber defense is best positioned to meet today’s threats. Entrust now provides the broadest identity-centric security capabilities in the market which combine with strong encryption technologies to enable the evolution to Zero Trust.”

Entrust will service a range of business requirements by leveraging Onfido’s identity verification solutions across the Entrust portfolio including its biometrics, AI/machine learning, and no-code orchestration capabilities. Now, capabilities include automated security defenses, with a layered, enhanced approach to fraud detection, using AI developed in-house to verify genuine identities. With its updated and new solutions, organizations can secure digital-first experiences for customers, citizens, and their workforces, while complying with global regulations and reducing fraud.

Entrust’s solutions provide immediate opportunities for a variety of industries, including financial services and identity access management:

• Financial Services: Digital onboarding for financial services and payments starts with real identity, verifying the person and their credential. Financial services and payments companies will now be able to onboard trusted customers, authenticate them, and issue debit cards in a matter of minutes while reducing their fraud exposure and remaining compliant with international regulations and standards.
• Identity Access Management (IAM): Entrust will integrate Onfido’s AI-powered tools into its existing IAM solutions to protect critical assets and transactions with enhanced authentication, leveraging biometrics and digital certificates.

According to a recent report by Onfido, organizations saw a 3,000% increase in deepfakes and a five-times increase in forged identities over the past year. Onfido’s technology fights fire with fire, utilizing AI to deliver reliable liveness detection and spot deepfakes, video spoofs, masks, and similar identity theft tactics. Over the last year and a half, Onfido prevented an additional $6 billion in potential fraud.