This white paper describes the partnership between MOSIP and TECH5, and technology offerings based on the MOSIP platform powered by TECH5’s biometric and digital ID technologies, as well as provides information about the National ID projects using the platform.
MOSIP as an Initiative
MOSIP® (Modular Open Source Identity Platform) is a global open-source middleware platform developed for National Foundational ID programs. It is designed to help organizations and governments implement a foundational ID system that provides citizens with unique (digital) IDs that can be securely authenticated, and that facilitates the effective delivery of authentication services for public and private entities, such as healthcare, education, and social security, among many others.
Having learned lessons from Estonia and other advanced digital ID systems as well as Aadhaar India UID, the largest identity management program in the world, IIIT-B built the MOSIP platform, which can now be easily deployed around the globe. Nations can reuse MOSIP freely and build their own inclusive ID systems without having to develop technology from scratch.
The MOSIP ecosystem consists of partners from among biometrics and digital ID technology vendors, as well as the governments it they work with. It also increasingly includes testing labs, academic institutions and other non-profit organizations.
Twenty-seven countries have visited the MOSIP experience center so far, and several more have engaged with MOSIP in other ways. Eleven countries are at various stages of MOSIP adoption, and the education and testing programs are advancing rapidly.
The Modular Open-Source Identity Platform has made a major impact on the Foundational ID systems of countries in Asia and Africa and is actively approaching more countries. Today, 93+ million people are registered on MOSIP-Based Systems.
TECH5-MOSIP Relationship
The first biometric matching technology integrated with MOSIP
TECH5 Group is a technology company and innovator in the field of biometrics and digital identity management. TECH5 was the first ABIS vendor that recognized MOSIP’s unique value proposition for an open-source National ID solution driving Foundational ID. As a result, TECH5 invested its time and resources to assist MOSIP® in fully integrating TECH5’s multi-biometric matching technology, including the T5-OmniMatch ABIS platform and Biometric SDKs for fingerprint, iris and face recognition, with the MOSIP® platform. In addition, TECH5 was able to make use of its expertise in building large-scale National ID solutions based on the company’s proven experience in this field to allow MOSIP to present a tested and ready-to-use solution with integrated biometrics to the Executive Committee and International Advisory Group of MOSIP® on August 6th, 2019.
“Our commitment to MOSIP® has always been very strong. We develop all our technologies and solutions for identity management around the principles of ID4D and are very passionate about the MOSIP® project, whose mission is aligned with TECH5. We invested in the integration of our platforms with MOSIP and are actively working for the project because we very much believe that our combined solution will provide high value to countries that are establishing identity management systems.”
– says Rahul Parthe, Co-founder, Chairman and CTO of TECH5.
The first Digital ID technology integrated with MOSIP
With the ABIS already integrated, in 2021, TECH5 went a step further by integrating the T5-IDencode issuance platform – a part of its T5-Digital ID offering – with the MOSIP foundational identity Platform, including biometric enrolment of a person as well as the issuance of secure and private digital IDs with data sourced from a National ID database.
Today, all TECH5’s matching and Digital ID platforms have statuses of MOSIP-Compliant and MOSIP-Integrated products.
TECH5-MOSIP Integration
All biometric matching and digital ID issuance platforms are fully integrated with the MOSIP Foundational Identity Platform and are available for adoption b Governments.
Any country adopting MOSIP can leverage the fully integrated innovative technologies of TECH5, such as T5-OmniMatch ABIS – an automated biometric identification system, as well as T5-Digital ID – the technology offering that combines the contactless biometric capture and digital ID issuance and verification platforms, with minimum integration efforts.
T5-OmniMatch ABIS
MOSIP can be used together with the T5-OmniMatch ABIS platform for deduplication during the registration process, multi-factor verification and authentication for service provision. The platform can also be used to assess the quality of biometric images during registration using T5-OmniMatch BioSDK for finger, iris and face recognition. Integrated technologies provide a platform with strong matching and enrolment capabilities.
The combined solution of MOSIP and TECH5 is designed to avoid vendor lock-in. T5-OmniMatch ABIS is built on an open architecture, giving governments maximum flexibility to change technology components along with changes in strategy without having to re-build the entire ID system and without the need to re-register its citizens.
T5-Digital ID
Implementing a digital ID using the MOSIP platform in combination with TECH5 technologies for biometric matching and Digital ID issuance and verification will allow governments to improve the ID issuance process by reducing the cost and increasing the speed of issuance, as well as streamlining the logistics and management of the ID lifecycle.
TECH5’s digital ID retains the same ID verification functionality whether it is purely electronic or printed during the personalization of an ID card. Furthermore, reading and verification of the digital ID can be performed in a completely offline manner, making both specialized/purpose-built devices and internet connectivity unnecessary. In this way, digital ID provides flexible and unique advantages to Governments, allowing them to build a foundation for Digital ID in a fast and efficient way together with a consequent reduction in hardware.
The MOSIP platform is designed to help organizations and governments implement a foundational ID system that provides users with unique IDs. With the integration of the T5-IDencode platform with MOSIP, these unique IDs can not only be issued in a secure digital format, but can also be securely authenticated, thus facilitating the effective delivery of services such as healthcare, education, and social security, without compromising a citizen’s data.
The MOSIP platform integrated with T5-Digital ID also allows for enrolment and deduplication prior to issuing a digital ID. The T5-OmniMatch ABIS component is used for deduplication services during the enrolment process to verify that a user does not already exist in the database under a different name and to ensure that the issued digital ID is unique.
The credential issuance functionality of T5-Digital ID will significantly increase privacy and security during verification. This is because the digital ID is issued in the form of a secure digital container known as the T5-Cryptograph, which enables biometric authentication using TECH5’s NIST top-ranked face and/or fingerprint recognition algorithms. Furthermore, the data in the T5-Cryptograph is readable only by a verified authority, and only after the identity holder authorizes the reading and verification of its contents.
The total solution enables each user to have full control over their private and personally identifiable information. The credential issued by the Government can be stored on the user’s phone or kept in printed format and used for biometric verification against the holder. This consent-based mechanism afforded by the new solution empowers each user with the ability to seamlessly self-authenticate anywhere in the country and access a wide range of Government and Enterprise services.
“MOSIP believes in innovation. Paperless secure credentialing and enablement of offline identity verification is a strong use-case to demonstrate, especially from the point of view of inclusion and privacy. We appreciate TECH5’s initiatives in embracing breakthrough open-source technology like MOSIP”,
– says Krishnan Rajagopalan, Head of Country Implementations, MOSIP.
MOSIP is also planning to integrate T5-AirSnap Finger – a patented and fully touchless fingerprint capture technology for mobile devices, designed to increase the scalability of fingerprint-based solutions and reduce dependency on costly purpose-built hardware that traditionally drives costs in large-scale projects. To showcase the technology, MOSIP is planning to create a new section within its marketplace for promising technologies that are still being developed and evaluated.
Some of the TECH5-MOSIP Implementations
Today, digital identity and biometric matching systems based on MOSIP and TECH5’s technologies have been rolled out in Ethiopia, and pilots are running in several other countries.
Ethiopia Foundational ID
Type of the project and stage: Phase 1 of production underway.
TECH5’s technologies: T5-OmniMatch ABIS for finger, face and iris matching, T5-IDencode for Digital ID generation, T5-BioSDK for clients and 1:1 authentication, T5-Manual Adjudication clients.
Number of citizens enrolled today: 1.4 million Fayda IDs
Project description: In 2021, NIDP Ethiopia partnered with TECH5 to implement biometric technologies and digital ID for the Ethiopian National ID program. TECH5 has become an international partner and technology supplier for the National ID Program of the Ethiopian Government Entity (NIDP Ethiopia). NIDP Ethiopia has implemented a pilot program with TECH5 biometric matching platform for face, fingerprint and iris modalities for biometric identification, de-duplication and enrollment, as well as T5-Digital ID for issuance and authentication of foundational IDs of residents. This pilot program has at its core an IDMS (Identity Management System named Fayida) based on MOSIP.
Individuals participating in the pilot program were enrolled by providing their biometric and demographic data. Face, fingerprint and iris images are captured, checked for quality using the TECH5 SDK, and then de-duplicated through a 1:N check against data in the National ID system using the TECH5 identification system (T5-OmniMatch ABIS) that is integrated into the MOSIP platform. TECH5 has also deployed the T5-IDencode platform integrated with MOSIP for Digital ID generation. Once enrolled, an individual receives a digital ID which can be presented in an electronic or printed format and verified completely offline using an authorized verifier application on a smartphone.
All data collected, stored in the NID database, and/or published in the ID credential is limited to the minimum data required to identify an individual. All data remains secure under NIDP and is owned by the individual who has sole and total control over how the data is managed and used. The Ethiopian Identity program is working in compliance with international principles of data privacy, minimal data retention, inclusion and consent. Current working principles are made public here.
“This entire program is aimed at creating and implementing a Foundational Digital ID system for Ethiopia at the national level, the culmination of which results in the enrolment of millions of consenting individuals as part of national priority use-cases in the banking, insurance, education, residential services and other sectors. We are glad to partner with the TECH5 team, who have demonstrated innovative solutions in the biometrics industry.”
– comments Yodahe Zemichael, Executive Director of the NID Program.
In 2022, Ethiopia implemented its first Foundational ID project with TECH5 technologies as part of its pre-launch phase by deploying a production system. Leveraging all benefits of the innovation, such as the deployment of an open platform like MOSIP customized by local experts to fit the country’s context, NIDP Ethiopia plans to ease the issuance of Digital ID and minimize the reliance on smart cards, ease of distribution and usage of new IDs, avoid the need for expensive hardware for the ID verification, and provide authentication for both online and offline scenarios.
Citizens are enroled in the National ID system by providing their biometric and demographic data. After the enrolment, digital IDs are generated using the T5-IDencode platform integrated with MOSIP. Once generated, a digital ID is sent to its authorized holder – the citizen – and can be presented in an electronic or printed format and verified completely offline using an authorized verifier application on a smartphone or tablet. All data remains secure under NIDP and is owned by the individual who has sole and total control over how the data is managed and used. The Ethiopia National ID program is a perfect example of centralized issuance and decentralized verification.
“We are delighted to announce that the first million digital IDs for Ethiopians will be issued over the coming months. With TECH5 as a partner, we are now ready to provide the next-generation digital IDs to the benefit of the residents of Ethiopia and move steadily towards our goal of providing a Digital ID to the entire population of 100 million people in Ethiopia.”
– Comments Eyob Alemu, Technology Director of the NID Program.
The use-cases for digital IDs in Ethiopia, as well as in other countries, are endless: banking, insurance, travel, education, residential services and more. And now, a digital ID holder does not even need a smartphone – his or her ID is securely stored in the digital container – a T5-Cryptograph – that can be simply printed and verified biometrically offline, against its holder. This application is at the forefront of inclusive digital identity worldwide.
TECH5 continues to work with MOSIP on enabling governments with technologies for inclusive National and Digital ID systems.
To learn about other implementations, or test TECH5’s technologies, contact us:
[email protected]