Card, mobile credential, payment and security
‘Proof of personhood’ is rapidly becoming a campus-wide issue
As artificial intelligence fuels new forms of fraud and impersonation, universities face growing challenges around identity verification. IDEMIA’s Amit Sharma points out that nearly every interaction on a campus – from building access and classroom participation to payroll and student services – depends on establishing trust in a person's identity. He says biometrics hold the key for both physical and online transactions.
Sharma explains that colleges and universities function as complex ecosystems serving students, faculty, staff, vendors, service providers, and visitors. Whether someone is accessing a residence hall, entering a research facility, making a purchase at the bookstore, receiving payroll, or participating in online learning, institutions must verify that users are who they claim to be.
As AI-enabled fraud continues to grow, Sharma points to emerging threats such as deepfakes, bot traffic, payroll fraud, and ghost student enrollment schemes. He believes biometrics and verifiable digital credentials offer institutions a powerful tool for strengthening security while reducing friction for legitimate users.
He also discusses the growing convergence of physical and digital campus environments. As more services move online, identity systems must evolve to support secure access across both worlds. Biometrics, he argues, can help establish proof of personhood in an era where distinguishing between humans and AI-generated actors is becoming increasingly difficult.
We're already starting from a privacy layer that people assume exists ... that doesn't exist. The question then is, how do we take that cat that's left the internet bag and add a protective cover?
While concerns about privacy remain, Sharma views modern identity technologies as an opportunity to return greater control of personal identity to individuals. By combining biometrics with privacy-focused digital credentials, universities can help reduce fraud, improve security, and create more trusted interactions across campus.
To listen to the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT – Amit Sharma, IDEMIA:
I'm Amit Sharma. I run the global and digital strategy for IDEMIA, which is just a fancy way of saying, “How do we take our full suite and panoply of identity access management, advanced biometrics for physical and logical access controls, and enable them digitally?”
Universities are a fun space because they're an ecosystem in and of themselves. They’re engaging not just students as consumers of education product, but faculty, employees and staff, vendors and service providers, visitors and the like.
There's a whole ecosystem of services that need to be provided. The access to those services – like your own dorm or research facility or classroom, physical classroom or remote classroom, your access to a stadium for a sports event, you’re buying and selling activities at a bookstore, tuition, payroll, or paying at a cafeteria – every one of these actions requires an identity exposure.
I'm excited about universities as they're like mini countries, mini ecosystems that have providers of services, consumers of services, and both physical and digital access and engagement points.
Everyone is trying to say, “Are you who you say you are? Are you authenticated to be here at this moment in time, acquiring this service?” And those are both vulnerabilities from an identity perspective, but also an opportunity set.
The application of biometrics in this space serves to not only create levels of control and security, but also to create less friction for engagement in those settings.
Fraud continues to rise with AI, online, and web-based enablement. AI-enabled fraud continues to rise. Statistics suggest it accounts for 30 to 40-plus percent of payroll fraud because of spoofing of employees on onboarding, and it extends all the way to student aid fraud.
In California in 2024, 1.2 million actual student applications were fraudulent. Over 200,000 ended up being enrollees that became ‘ghost students.’ This is rampant.
Whether you're talking about the physical location of campus or the online engagement, the through line for vendors, service providers, employees, faculty, staff, students is identity.
How do we ensure that you are who you say you are? That the role or persona you have within the context of the ecosystem is in fact you? And you can either provide a service or access a service in a secure way.
In California in 2024, 1.2 million actual student applications were fraudulent. Over 200,000 ended up being enrollees that became ‘ghost students.’
That's what the advancement of biometrics is doing in the university setting.
We are seeing a couple of trends in the marketplace which I'm excited about, but it should also give us pause.
One, we're seeing a convergence between physical and digital ecosystems. I mean, COVID speedballed us to it. But online access, whether it's remote and virtual classroom settings, down to sharing of research and engagements across different student populations, employee and faculty populations, it's happening almost exclusively online.
So that convergence is happening, which means we must also have an equal convergence of physical, logical and digital enablement in that way.
Biometrics is one of the last bastions against AI deepfakes and whether or not you're engaging with a bot or an agent online.
Last year in 2025, I saw a statistic that 55 to 60% of all online traffic is bots. This is at the elementary level of agentic commerce. That's only going to rise.
Is there a verified person or entity behind that agent or bot? We don't know. So, one of the few ways that we have to be able to do it is to bind from a proof of personhood, which is with biometrics.
The second thing I'd say about biometrics in university settings is we are, in fact, seeing applications in other sectors. In many parts of Southeast Asia and some of the most remote emerging markets, we're seeing leapfrogging technology where you can pay using a biometric.
These things have not arrived here in the U.S., partly culturally, partly security, partly mass adoption and trust. But we're moving into those spaces.
Often people ask, “Oh my gosh, biometrics is scary.” What I'd like to remind them of is, are you holding an Apple, Google or Samsung phone? Congratulations, you’re already being surveilled.
We're already starting from a privacy layer that people assume exists that doesn't exist. The question then is, how do we take that cat that's left the internet bag and now enable the protective cover?
That's where verifiable digital credentials, applied biometrics, binding to your device, binding to your biometric, allows for me to say, do I really want to make that payment? Biometric will unlock it and will enable me to do so in a frictionless way, but also a more secure way.
Biometrics are not just coming. They are here, and they're an enabling environment, not something to be feared.
I'm excited about universities as they're like mini countries, mini ecosystems that have providers of services, consumers of services, and both physical and digital access and engagement points.
There are a whole host of trust, legal, and risk questions inherent in that, that are apropos to be asking.
What I'm excited about in the legal construct is where does identity live? Where should it live? It really should live with me, the person who owns that identity.
The application of applied biometrics and verifiable digital credentials now starts pushing the identity back to where it should be controlled, which is the individual that owns it.
When we can move to that environment, you enhance consumer protection and privacy protections. Remember half of the U.S. states are now actively looking at privacy protections, whether it's child protection efforts or just personal data efforts. This is only going to grow, and university ecosystems are a great, ripe ground for that.
The application of applied biometrics and verifiable digital credentials now starts pushing the identity back to where it should be controlled, which is the individual that owns it.
I think that model is there. What I am excited about is that these technologies are now embedding privacy controls that help with biometrics, prove you are who you say you are, and radically reduce fraud and illicit activity – especially in online environments.
The university ecosystem is a great test case for having these conversations of trust and legal. The more you can push identity back to the user, the more the liability protections need to go down.
IDEMIA would love to work with universities online, offline, from your vendors and services to your student populations, to your faculty, staff, enrollment, employment and payroll.
We're a solutions provider first. We have a host of physical and logical access hardware, software, and digital tools. We'd love to be a solutions provider.
Come visit us at IDEMIA.com Public Security. We'll show you across a lot of the smart biometrics elements. Myself, Amit Sharma, my colleagues like Rami and others can help understand what your pain points are and which hardware and software solutions we can provide to you.
