Reference
Digital Identity Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the concepts used across identity proofing, compliance, authentication, fraud and digital wallets.
A–Z terminology
Core terms for identity projects
Definitions can vary between standards, jurisdictions and vendors. Use these as a practical starting point and confirm formal meanings in the framework that governs your project.
- Adverse media
- Public information that may indicate financial crime, corruption or other risk relevant to a due-diligence decision.
- Authentication
- The process of establishing that a returning claimant controls one or more authenticators bound to an account.
- Authenticator
- Something a user possesses or controls to authenticate, such as a cryptographic key, device, password or biometric activation factor.
- Beneficial owner
- A natural person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity under the applicable definition and threshold.
- Biometric verification
- A one-to-one comparison of a captured biometric sample with a reference associated with the claimed identity.
- Credential
- Evidence or data issued by an authority or trusted party that makes claims about a subject.
- Customer due diligence (CDD)
- Measures used to identify and verify customers, understand the relationship, assess risk and conduct appropriate ongoing review.
- Digital identity
- A set of attributes, credentials and processes used to represent and establish an entity in a digital interaction.
- Document verification
- Assessment of an identity or business document’s data, format and security features for validity and possible manipulation.
- Electronic attestation of attributes
- A digital statement that confirms one or more attributes about a person or organisation under an applicable trust framework.
- Enhanced due diligence (EDD)
- Additional information, evidence, approval or monitoring applied where risk or regulation requires stronger scrutiny.
- eID
- An electronic identification means or scheme used to identify a person or organisation for digital services.
- EUDI Wallet
- A European Digital Identity Wallet solution under the EU framework for identity data, credentials and attribute presentation.
- False acceptance
- An incorrect decision that accepts an impostor, invalid evidence or otherwise ineligible attempt.
- False rejection
- An incorrect decision that rejects a genuine, eligible user or valid attempt.
- Federation
- An arrangement in which an identity provider supplies assertions used by another service, known as a relying party.
- Identity proofing
- The process of collecting evidence and resolving, validating and verifying a claimed real-world identity.
- Identity verification
- Establishing confidence that a person is who they claim to be for a defined decision or transaction.
- Know Your Business (KYB)
- Due diligence used to establish a business’s existence, ownership, control, representatives and relevant risk.
- Know Your Customer (KYC)
- Processes used to identify customers, verify relevant information and apply risk-based due diligence.
- Liveness detection
- Techniques intended to determine whether biometric evidence comes from a live present participant rather than an artefact or replay.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Authentication using more than one distinct factor category, reducing reliance on a single compromised factor.
- Orchestration
- Policy and workflow logic that coordinates data sources, checks, decisions, fallbacks and providers.
- Passkey
- A phishing-resistant credential based on public-key cryptography, commonly stored on or synchronised across user devices.
- Politically exposed person (PEP)
- A person entrusted with a prominent public function, or a connected person, who may require risk-sensitive scrutiny.
- Presentation attack
- An attempt to interfere with a biometric system using an artefact such as a photo, replay, mask or synthetic representation.
- Relying party
- A service that relies on identity information, credentials or assertions to provide access or make a decision.
- Sanctions screening
- Comparison of relevant parties against applicable sanctions lists, followed by investigation and decision where needed.
- Step-up authentication
- A request for stronger or additional authentication when risk, context or the requested action requires it.
- Synthetic identity
- An identity constructed from fabricated, altered or combined real and false information for deceptive use.
- Ultimate beneficial owner (UBO)
- The natural person or persons identified as ultimately owning or controlling a legal entity under applicable rules.
- Verification fallback
- An alternative route for cases that cannot complete the primary automated journey, such as manual or assisted review.
IA
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