Single digital identity announced for Singapore businesses

Singapore will this month launched a single digital identity for businesses, non-profits and associations to transact with government online.

“CorpPass marks the first time that the government is rolling out a single corporate digital identity. This creates opportunities for even more services and transactions to be provided online conveniently and securely,” said Chan Cheow Hoe, Assistant Chief Executive and Government Chief Information Officer at Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).

CorpPass will allow companies to access services across agencies with a single login account. Currently, they must use multiple digital identities with different agencies.

The single identity will also improve security for businesses, IDA said. They will be able to centrally manage and grant employees’ access to government transactions, like filing taxes, declaring imports and applying for permits.

Employees must currently use their individual SingPass IDs for company transactions with the government. This is the same ID used for personal transactions, such as accessing welfare payments and applying for housing.

This increases security risks as employees have to “share their personal SingPass IDs and passwords with colleagues” for others in the business to access the service, IDA said.

“Having separate login IDs for corporate and personal matters will therefore better protect information of both businesses and employees,“ it said.

CorpPass will be rolled out progressively from September 2016 to December 2017, with more government services added at each phase.

The first phase will include services from the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, Ministry of Trade and Industry, National Environment Agency, and Singapore Customs.

Trials started in April with over 1,500 businesses already registering their CorpPass accounts. The project is owned by Ministry of Finance, and built and managed by IDA.

Image by Nan-Cheng Tsai, licensed under cc BY-ND 2.0