According to a 2019 global internet security survey, eight in 10 people are concerned about their online privacy, and almost half said their distrust has caused them to disclose less personal information online.

This lack of trust is resulting in increased security and added complexity to protect credentials against threat actors. And according to the Digital Identity and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC), Canada’s digital identity structure has an economic impact as well:

• About $236 per user per year to deal with password-related issues
• Individuals who experienced identity theft due to a password breach spend about 600 hours recovering, which equates to about $16,000 of unrealized income
• The average total cost of data breaches is over $5.7 million per year

The DIACC, a non-profit coalition, says that Canada needs a secure infrastructure that gives consumers control of their personal data, and having a trusted digital identity structure could bring about $15 billion to the Canadian economy by improving service delivery and driving GDP growth.

How a digital identity builds trust

Despite security concerns, Canadians recognize the need for further digital convenience in daily life – whether it’s the ability to vote online or participate in open banking. To enable those types of services, business and government systems need to be interconnected and work together to confirm the digital identity of Canadians.

Ultimately, trust in the digital economy comes down to verification.

For the DIACC, the infrastructure that’s needed to build trust in a digital economy must be robust, scalable, secure and enhance privacy for consumers.

Building a national digital identity ecosystem

The DIACC is unlocking digital identity capabilities in Canada by enabling strong collaboration and leadership across public and private sectors to:

• develop a secure, robust and verifiable Digital ID framework and ecosystem that is adopted by businesses and governments to benefit our economy
• raise the profile of Canada’s digital identity innovation
• create expertise and intellectual property for excellence in digital identity

Recently, Celero has become a member of the DIACC. We believe that for credit unions to be successful in a digital economy, we must overcome the challenges we are facing with digital identity and authentication.

Our goal in joining the DIACC is to participate in driving forward solutions for digital identity trust in Canada and apply our learnings to ensure our clients can offer their members security, flexibility and convenience in a digital first society.

We will continue to share updates about our role in the DIACC and how we are contributing to overcoming the real-world challenges of digital identity.

For more information about the Council and its goals, visit diacc.ca.