Tag Archive for: verification

Twitter pauses its verification program rollout after giving fake accounts blue checks

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Twitter is halting the expansion of its verification program, saying it needs to work on the application and review process that lets people into the blue check mark club. This change, where Twitter won’t be letting new people apply for verification, is coming after Twitter admitted that several fake accounts, which reportedly seemed to be part of a botnet, were incorrectly verified.

If you’ve recently applied for verification, there is a chance you’ll get it — Twitter Verified has said that it’ll still be reviewing existing applications, so the freeze is just preventing new people from being able to apply. In other words, if you were able to apply before, Twitter’s lead says you still can. Twitter hasn’t indicated that it’ll be making changes to the criteria that it uses to deem accounts as verifiable or not. A Twitter spokesperson told The Verge that it would “resume rolling out applications in the next few weeks.”

This isn’t the first time Twitter has paused its verification program — it put the public process on hold in 2017, after it received backlash for verifying one of the organizers behind the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville. It brought back a revamped version in 2021 — and paused it a week later due to an avalanche of requests.

The start-stop issues Twitter has been having with its Verified program speak to the difficulties that can come with issuing a badge that is sometimes regarded by users as an endorsement. Twitter says that the purpose of the badge is to show that an account is “authentic, notable, and active,” but even those criteria can end up courting controversy when people who are arguably notable get their applications rejected (especially when obviously fake accounts make it through).

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Twitter was halting applications. We regret…

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Y Soft adds to identity verification solution portfolio

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Y Soft is adding to its portfolio of identity verification solutions with the release of a new secure identity verification for networked printers.

The Y Soft MFX Mobile Reader joins the portfolio of USB readers designed to provide identity verification in what the company describes as a ‘secure, accurate, and convenient’ way.

This is particularly important following COVID-19 and a refreshed interest from businesses that focuses on keeping employees safe at the office.

Y Soft chief of products Wouter Koelewijn says the reader “addresses the need for better physical safety by letting their employees use their mobile devices to identify themselves instead of physically touching the networked printer.”

Furthermore, employees’ biometric data is only stored on their smartphones and not on corporate networks, which means there is no need to comply with data protection regulations such as the GDPR.

“Unlike an identity card, a misplaced or stolen smartphone can’t be used to access users’ print jobs since the phone’s native security features (PIN, fingerprint, facial recognition) act as the second-factor authentication,” the company explains.

The USB reader comprises the reader, digital credentials, and a mobile app.  

YSoft MFX Mobile Reader accurately reads the user’s credentials from the user’s mobile phone. Employees only need to touch their own mobile phones to print all the jobs in their print queue, eliminating the need to touch the networked printer and reducing the number of times the multifunction device (MFD) must be wiped down per day. MFX Mobile Reader also supports the use of identity cards supporting over 100 access card technologies.

YSoft Connect ID provides an enrolment process, and the credentials can be sent electronically to each user. The YSoft Mobile Connect app stores the digital credentials and uses those credentials to securely authenticate the user on any printer equipped with the MFX Mobile Reader. This provides secure two-factor authentication, and the user’s private data is stored only on their personal device.

With the YSoft Mobile Connect mobile app (Android or iOS), users can authenticate access to print management…

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Android App Verification Issues Pave Way For Phishing Attacks

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A research team suggested a new secure-by-design API after discovering design flaws in the way Android apps are verified by password managers.
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