Biometrics Firms Snap Up Talent: Identity News Digest

Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

Thales to Recruit 12,000

Thales is going on a hiring spree, with the French security giant announcing plans to hire 12,000 workers around the world. That will include recruitment into company arms involved in biometrics and other identity technologies, with the firm noting that its aiming to bolster “three core markets: Aerospace, Defence and Security, and Digital Identity and Security.” The majority of new employees – 5,500 – will be in Thales’ home country, with another 1,050 planned for the UK, 600 in Australia, 550 in India, and 540 in the US.

Leidos Names Next CEO

Leidos has found its next chief executive as current Chairman and CEO Roger Krone prepares to step down. Thomas Bell, the current President of Rolls-Royce’s defense department and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America, will take Leidos’s helm effective May 3. He will be CEO, while the role of Board Chairman will go to current board director Robert S. Shapard. Despite facing antitrust and fraud investigations from the Department of Justice last year, Leidos remains a huge government contractor, having booked a $1.5 billion pair of deals from the Social Security Administration in January.

Axiad Appoints New CFO

Axiad has announced the appointment of Jon Skoglund as its new Chief Financial Officer. Described as a Silicon Valley veteran, Skoglund comes to the company from a previous CFO posiition with Redwood-based cybersecurity firm Anomali. He has also held executive roles at ShareThis, Upsight, and Bayshore Global Management, among other firms. Axiad is known for its enterprise-focused passwordless authentication platform, which supports a number of mechanisms including smart cards, YubiKeys, and biometrics; the company joined the FIDO Alliance in 2021.

BIPA Trouble Cited in Amazon Derivative Suit

Amazon executives and board members, as well as former CEO Jeff Bezos, are now facing a shareholder lawsuit over the corporate mismanagement issues, including those that led to its violations of Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. This is not a BIPA case per se, but a “derivative suit” from an unhappy stockholder who believes poor corporate governance has hurt the company and its stock. The complaint concerns “misrepresentations made to stockholders” about not only “compliance with state biometric privacy laws” but also its anticompetitive practices.

Alcatraz to Host Privacy Webinar

Biometric access control specialist Alcatraz AI will host a free webinar on ensuring privacy when deploying such solutions. The online event, slated to begin at 11:00 a.m. EST on March 15, will feature a bona fide legal expert, David Oberly of Squire Patton Boggs. Boggs regularly publishes privacy-focused insights on Squire Patton Boggs’ blog, Privacy World. And as Boggs himself explains on his LinkedIn profile, his primary work revolves around “providing sophisticated advice and guidance to corporate clients on a broad assortment of biometric privacy, data privacy, and security/data protection matters.”

Gambling Machines Firm Licenses Konami Tech

Australia’s Independent Gaming, a provider of gaming equipment for casinos, has entered into a licensing agreement with Konami for the latter’s facial recognition technology, which enables players to automatically be signed into a loyalty platform when they take a seat at a gaming machine or table, replacing the need to present a player card. “The benefits of biometrics within our player systems produces many possibilities for player functions and operators,” explained Independent Gaming Managing Director Lawrence Shepherd.

1Kosmos Lets Developer Try Before They Buy

1Kosmos has launched a new tool for developers, dubbed “1Kosmos DevX”, aimed at helping them test the implementation of the company’s passwordless authentication and identity verification solutions without actually having to install 1Kosmos’s BlockID system. “Identity management vendors typically force customers to trust their platforms will work as expected when integrated with their applications, which creates a lot of risk and often slows down development projects,” explained 1Kosmos SVP Javed Shah. “DevX supports a more agile and journeys-based approach to deploying passwordless MFA and identity verification, by making it possible to try before you buy.”

Areeba Enables ‘Out-of-Band’ Payment Authentication

Middle East-based payments processor Areeba has announced support for mobile-based biometric authentication. In partnership with Netcetera, Areeba is now offering banks and other financial services clients an “Out-of-Band” authentication system that will let cardholders confirm payments with a fingerprint or face scan through a mobile app. It’s the latest sign of Areeba’s interest in technological payments innovation after it trialed fingerprint-scanning cards with Zwipe last year.

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March 1, 2023 – by Alex Perala

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