ID-M: To Protect Our Identities
Over 300 million fake profiles on Facebook. Canadians lost 21.2 million dollars related to identity theft in 2018. Social engineering frauds have lost organizations and businesses billions of dollars. While 69% of the population is concerned about identity theft, there was really no reliable way to confirm the identity of people… until ID-M offered a solution allowing anyone to prove its identity in a simple and reliable way.
ID-M is an innovative Quebec startup in the field of digital identity, so the mission is to make verifying an individual’s identity as simple and reliable as recognition in person. The team of five partners has developed its identity verification platform, which comes with an ID-M mobile application and an open API for developers and organizations.
“We are focused on developing challenge mechanisms and fueling ourselves from various sources of identity since we do not want to reinvent the wheel but rather create value,” explains Patrice Caron, president of ID-M. All these forms of challenge (bidirectional challenge-response) aim to strengthen the existing identity verification processes in organizations. We offer a consultation service to analyze, improve and support organizations in strengthening their identity-related processes through our platform. The orientation of the solution is the support of multiple sources of identity as much private, public as of partners than with the help of the support of open standards such as the “Verifiable Credentials Data Model” as proposed by the W3C in November 2019. This aspect of the solution allows maximum interoperability between different entities which can be companies, organizations, provinces and countries. ”
And then a certain virus emerged…
When the company was in its infancy in 2017, the response was positive, although somewhat doubtful. “We heard that we were ahead,” recalls Mr. Caron. We were persistent, we worked tirelessly, invested in time and money and finally the momentum came. The past few weeks have been fruitful for us! ”
COVID-19 has created a favorable climate for the emergence of the platform. “The explosion of remote working has created a receptive environment and fertile ground for the emergence of multiple identity theft frauds,” said Mr. Caron. Whether in the area of public services, financial services, health, to name a few, have become problematic. As people meet less and less with remote working which will become a widespread practice, it will become increasingly important to ensure that we communicate with the right person.
Why join In-Sec-M?
“It’s essential to be part of an ecosystem to promote our ideas, receive feedback and reach professionals in our field across the country,” insists Mr. Caron. In the longer term, we would like to collaborate within our means so that In-Sec-M can progress. It’s important for us to bring our brick to this new emerging ecosystem of digital identity. ”
To read more about our members: insecm.ca/secure-exchanges