Day one of Biometric MENA Summit 2021 kickstarted on 26th July 2021 with opening remarks from the Managing Director at Verve Management, Sabah Parvez, and was followed by a welcoming note by none other than the Head of Cards, Bank of Beirut, Mr. Fares Antoun who was the Chairperson of the day.
Prof. Dr. Marina L. Gavrilova, Professor at the Department of Computer Science – University of Calgary gave an insightful presentation on concepts of social behavioral biometrics like motivation, current developments, and future trends. Prof. Marina explained how social behavior is measured by the average probability of tweets per day, per hour, per week, etc. She also stated that biometrics also helps in user identification and gender prediction by analyzing the behavior of the customer. A lot of significant information about physical and behavioral biometrics was shared in this session.
Mr. Femi O. “Olofintila Olufemi” from Nova Merchant Bank moderated a panel discussion which involved esteemed speakers like Mr. Juan Antonio Rodríguez Ibáñez from Entrust, Mr. Somit Chitrey from Standard Chartered Bank, Dr. Joseph George from National Bank of Fujairah, and Ms. Babitha B P from CSB Bank LTD. The panelists talked about risk mitigation and how cyber fraud has increased more than 90% during the pandemic. They discussed how data is the fuel of the future and the importance of securely storing the data away from the fraudsters. Dr. Joseph mentioned that the National Bank of Fujairah is the only bank in the world that does not require its customer to put passwords in the browser for logging in.
Micah Walker, CEO of Grabba gave a presentation on how the biometrics for today is helping in mobilizing the future. He mentioned how the government focuses on the security of the citizens and how the government is implementing strict and safe ways to secure and protect customer data. He spoke about mobile biometrics and how it helps you to register and log in to your bank accounts from anywhere in the world. He proudly spoke about how Grabba is a known leader within biometrics for security and law enforcement in the US, UK, and Europe.
Another panel discussion took place which was moderated by Mr. Mustafa Zafarullah from Sohar International which involved esteemed speakers like Mr. Fares Antoun from Bank of Beirut, Mr. Viji Varghese from Mashreq Bank, and Mr. Sarath Kummamuru from Airtel Payment Bank. The panelists spoke about dealing with a sudden surge of orders during the pandemic and how most of the banks made a significant profit during the pandemic. Mr. Viji pointed out that the extensive use of big data, heavy digitization, and more use of the cloud is enhancing the ease and security of digital payments.
Mr. Ameya Bhagwat, VP Global Business Development and Sales from Tech5 shared his expertise on Blockchain & Biometrics and demonstrated that it is secure to let individuals manage their own identities. Ameya spoke about how Tech5 is an international technology company dedicated to the design, development, and distribution of biometrics-driven management solutions, and 370+ million active identities are managed by the Tech5 platform in projects worldwide. He also explained how Tech5 cryptograph is used to store complete personal data, a face image, and biometric templates, all protected by data encryption.
Mr. André Løvestam, CEO of ZWIPE gave a presentation on how Zwipe is a biometric fintech company pioneering nextgen contactless payment experience. He explained how the biometrics data is secured and never leaves the card. He stated that biometric payment cards are convenient and are the future of payments. He further explained in detail, the benefits of a biometric payment card which includes, security, innovation, safety and hygiene, privacy, and also helps in accelerating customer acquisition.
Mr. Siddharth Gandhi, COO APAC, 1Kosmos Inc shared his expertise on a journey from hope-based authentication to identity-based authentication. He explained the three identity pillars which are expensive to operate and maintain, with no cross-function benefit. The three pillars are Identity Proofing, User Authentication, and Fraud Detection. Identity proofing is one-time proof of the user’s citizen or employer identity. User authentication asks users for secrets, passwords plus secondary factors. Fraud detection detects risky behavior and mitigates compensating controls.
