ID Crypt Global, a decentralised digital identity and security provider, has launched a decentralised security infrastructure for financial services. The patented solution, which ID Crypt Global has named DPKIps, allows financial institutions to move away from costly Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), to a highly resilient and cheaper decentralised Public Key Infrastructure solution.
To date, payment systems use centralised Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to help secure payment messages that banks send and receive. This is achieved as the PKI allows the encryption and creation of digital signatures based on private keys created by the PKI. These digital signatures prove the integrity of the payment message. Within financial services, centralised PKI solutions are commonplace, used by payment systems and secure messaging platforms - such as SWIFT. Despite being frequently used, PKI still comes at great expense to the systems that require it and the financial organisations that must implement it.
Lauren Wilson-Smith, CEO of ID Crypt Global explained: “PKI has been the cornerstone of almost all financial market infrastructures, payment systems and interbank communications. Centralised solutions like PKI are single points of failure, not just in terms of operational resilience, but also as a weak point in any cyber security stance, they actively insert a middleman in the security process.
“Many operational processes associated with the generation of security keys and their sharing between banks or payment systems must become cumbersome and complex, just to mitigate risks associated with keys falling into the wrong hands. Processes for key generation, sharing and rotation become overly complex and expensive. With DPKIps, not only is a single point of failure removed, but all the complex processes associated with keeping keys safe are replaced with mathematics and automation, keeping every key and message safe.”
DPKIps utilises blockchain (DLT) technology which the company states is required in order to deliver true operational resilience and to replace the need for a centralised point of trust.
Wilson-Smith added: “We feel our technology can significantly help FMIs, payment systems, banks and innovative fintech’s with their security posture. Not only does the technology remove much of the challenges, risks and costs associated with PKI, it can also be shared across multiple systems that typically require their own PKI.”
ID Crypt Global confirmed the technology successfully completed a six-month pilot phase with customers. Early adopters have already started to interact with the technology in production.