Cybersecurity Secrets and Identity Protection in the world of gambling by VU Security at GAT Showcase Santo Domingo

The conference began with a presentation. Indeed, Kennedy Román, Director for the Caribbean and Central America region of VU Security, explained that “we are a cybersecurity company focused on identity protection and fraud prevention. We have been generating digital identity for different governments and industries for more than 14 years. This began in commercial banking, which as we know is the most regulated sector worldwide, and since 2018 we arrived in the Dominican Republic to work together with different banks in the entire digital identity process” and added that currently “We have operations throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Europe and the United States.”

 The beginnins

 Dating back to the beginnings of VU Security, Kennedy recalled that “Today there are even digital banks that do not have any branches and have the ability to serve a client 100% remotely. All this was born through our founder, Mr. Sebastián Estranieri, who had to go month after month to accompany his grandmother in Argentina to collect her pension. Just like here, many times in order to pay the pension, the person has to prove in person that they are alive. A process that lasts two or three minutes, where an officer simply looks at the woman and says, yes, it's her, shows her a document that is not validated by any technological means, and from then on that woman can collect her pension. And it cost him a transfer, it took time. “We designed an entire process where people can do identity validation 100% remotely.”

 And he added “That which was born as a particular solution, today a company like Gartner, which is the regulator or the company that monitors technology companies globally, mentions us as a global identity reference. We have been able to accompany different governments and different institutions throughout the entire identity validation process remotely. The idea is to guarantee this operation between an individual who is a client or not, who can be a client of yours remotely from the beginning.”

 The Argentinian case for Games of Chance

 Specifically entering the area of ​​​​cybersecurity in gambling, Keneddy explained that “I think everyone knows the online gaming company BetWarrior. Argentina moved forward with the digital identity law and since 2017 it has required that all its citizens have a digital identity created. The citizen no longer needs to have a physical document. Until recently, online gaming was simply presenting or typing a document number. With that document number it was validated in a database that it was an adult, but no one said if it was a child who was on the other side. Nobody said if it was a person whose identity was simply stolen, their document number stolen.”

 At this point, the businessman explained that "A service was developed for BetWarrior where the client is sent a link, either by WhatsApp, by email, by SMS, by any of the means of communication that the client has, where at that person is required to validate their identity through a photograph of their document. And there it is validated that it is a true document, that it is a physical document that was in the transaction, and proof of life is requested. “This proof of life is nothing more than the same random movements that are made to unlock an iPhone.”

 And he continued explaining that through this security system “the citizen will take a photo and take a selfie. This generates a database, which today BetWarrior is going to share with all other online gaming platforms, as a separate business, to be able to demonstrate to the regulator that each game sold, each access to its tools and platforms, complied with validating the identity of the person. They were generating a blacklist base of people who tried to defraud the platform through a false document, by putting on a face with a different document.”

 Digital Identity for gambling

 At the central point of the Conference, Kennedy Román explained that “What we want to achieve here is to have a digital identity for the gaming sector and for you to be able to convert what we call moments of truth, it is that moment where the user requires a service and that they can have it in the form required, the objective is to be able to provide it safely, aimed at regulating online games. Being able to guarantee the regulator that they are serving the person they say they are, generating a database, being able to generate a KYC for money laundering issues, are things that the platform allows and are things that we are going to make available to you so that "They can go down the path of learning about these types of tools, which are already things that are happening in other countries."

“Within this process of being able to validate identities, monitoring any type of operation, the idea that we bring to you today is to be able to work together with the regulator to specifically design the needs of the Dominican market. We know that technology cannot do everything, but it is ideal to always be molding each of the tools with the benefit that we have knowledge of the type of community in the country, including the type of mobile phones that are used, in order to guarantee that This can reach the base of the pyramid.”

 Finally, Keneddy left a message to close the Conference: “This is a long-term game, these types of technologies and tools look to the future. This is just the beginning of how we can validate the identity of the users who access our games. Today in commercial banking they have already been experimenting with this type of tools for 5 or 6 years, it is even more so today that they are needed and are being developed for the future. Guaranteeing that instead of having 20, 30 branches nationwide, remotely, you can be much more efficient through online gaming, guaranteeing the integrity of your tools and platforms.”