Introduction

This report looks at global trends in online authentication from the perspective of New Zealand government agencies. These trends will influence our collective journey as we seek to leverage the online channel and Internet technologies to provide benefits to people, businesses, and government as a whole.

The focus in this report is on online authentication trends that have gained importance over the past year and look likely to be a major influence in the coming years. We have distilled the trends into six major categories. Not an easy or objective task considering that the online authentication space is currently in a period of rapid change.

Authentication can prime a virtuous cycle in which an increasing number of people have the confidence to transact online with government agencies, leading to increasing importance of the online channel for agencies. In turn, this will encourage agencies to increase the number and richness of online services offered, increasing the attractiveness of the online channel for people. The result is a self-reinforcing cycle of increasing people transacting online.

Alternatively, a failure to respond appropriately to authentication issues risks priming a vicious cycle of decreasing confidence, decreasing importance, stagnation (at best) of the number of services available over the online channel, and decreasing incentive for people to engage with the channel.

The Internet offers agencies a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver more coordinated, more accessible, more networked, and more trustworthy services to businesses and people. This is a real opportunity for government to meaningfully deliver on strategic goals articulated in the NZ Digital Strategy, Development Goals for State Services, and the E-government Strategy. A critical foundational requirement to benefit from this opportunity and help achieve government’s transformational goals is online authentication.

We hope that you will find this report useful and welcome your comments and questions. Our email address is authentication@ssc.govt.nz.

Vikram Kumar

All-of-government Authentication Programme, State Services Commission

www.e.govt.nz/services/authentication