Proving an identity in a situation where a person potentially cannot look in their wallet for driver’s license numbers or other previously issued IDs means that government agencies and businesses need to rely on other methods of identification. An efficient process for uniquely identifying an individual is important to business and government agencies. It is an integral aspect of handling the threat of fraud, hacking, data breaches and loss. Cost-effective, secure, remote identity proofing capability reduces fraud and helps mitigate risk, enables business transformation, and assists in the recovery of individuals and businesses after disaster.

During the past few weeks, we’ve all watched events unfold after the series of floods and deadly tornados throughout the US. As with other natural disasters, recovery will begin and survivors will rebuild their lives and towns – homes, businesses, schools, and other infrastructure. Anakam Identity Services assists federal agencies to manage the effort to help individuals and businesses get back on their feet after disasters like the recent severe storms and flooding.

As people affected by the disaster apply for loans or federal assistance, it is important to ensure that the person applying is indeed the individual they say they are – the owner of the business, farm or property. But after a natural disaster like storms, fires, or flooding, families and business owners don’t always have the records they need to prove their identity. The ability to efficiently establish identity assists people and businesses to quickly get the assistance they need to recover. The ability to uniquely identify an individual helps prevents fraud and ensures a clear record of the people and organizations being helped.

In normal business situations, the ability to securely establish identity without an expensive face-to-face transaction or without waiting for ID cards and passcodes in the mail, means a business can more easily register users for Web portals and begin using online tools. Whether users are purchasing online, applying for a loan, or accessing sensitive personal health information, verifying identity in the electronic world has never been more important nor the threat of fraud so great.

Our software solutions help determine a person’s identity using “out-of-wallet” questions which a person can answer from memory – such as verifying a previous address. Knowledge Based Authentication uses a combination of questions from both public and private data sets to positively identity someone. The combination of questions from several sources ensures that only the person in question can answer all of them correctly.

For more information about how Equifax can help protect your business by reliably proofing user identity, click here to contact a specialist.