Distributed cryptography company MIRACL today announced that Experian [LSE: EXPN] has selected its identity technology to provide highly secure authentication to millions of UK citizens.
Experian is a certified identity assurance provider for GOV.UK Verify, the new way for UK citizens to use government services online like renewing your driving license or filling out your tax safely, securely and straightforwardly.
The MIRACL M-Pin Crypto application is an enabling technology that Experian has selected to provide a high level of assurance, delivering two-factor authentication to secure people’s
identities. UK citizens using the GOV.UK Verify service will have completely secure access to their online accounts using MIRACL’s patented two-factor M-Pin Authentication Protocol. This involves a user-selected 5 digit PIN (something they know) alongside a software token which automatically installs in their mobile or desktop browser (something they have) when registering. Both factors must be present in order to create a key that drives a “zero knowledge proof authentication protocol” against MIRACLE’s M-Pin Server. The server stores no passwords, PINs or authentication credentials of any kind.
Experian’s selection of the M-Pin technology greatly reduces the risk for GOV.UK Verify and its users. It protects UK citizens using the service from identity fraud and the associated costs that result from cybercriminals stealing and abusing passwords. This increased security will also speed up government-delivered processes by allowing more services to be delivered securely online.
Nick Mothershaw, UK&I Director of Identity & Fraud at Experian stated: “Protecting the person online and giving them a good user experience of the services they are using is a key goal for us as a business. MIRACL is a pioneering company that will help us achieve that and we are looking forward to working with them. ”
MIRACL CEO, Brian Spector added: “Centralising logins across all government services is a significant move which requires strong yet simple security. For this reason, leading-edge technologies like M-Pin that embrace secure user-friendly authentication methods, but can also perform at mobile internet scale, are imperative. The original password system is vulnerable to a myriad of attacks and leaves users susceptible to password theft and social engineering. Using a zero-knowledge proof protocol, so that passwords are never used or stored in a vulnerable database, will make the password breach a thing of the past. We are really looking forward to working alongside Experian to deliver highly secure logins to millions of UK citizens.”
