How do you go from studying to become a doctor in Lebanon to opening a dance studio - Euphoria in Estonia - to becoming a Technical Owner at Veriff? Meet Andre Haikal, who recently shared some incredible stories about his career, interests, and everyday life at Veriff. Enjoy!   

To kick things off, tell us a little about yourself. How did you choose this career path?

It’s quite a story. I have a dance studio here in Estonia. When I was building it initially, I needed to have a proper system that would handle students, registration, invoicing, etc. So, I tried many CMS (Content Management System) solutions, but nothing was enough for what I needed. So, in the end, I decided to learn to build the solution for my problem by myself. This is how I started my journey as an Engineer. I started learning a programming language called Ruby, and I loved it. Then I really got into it and decided to build my career in this field. 

After a couple of years of practising, I got an opportunity to start a full-time job as a Software Engineer in a Bank, which gave me a lot of valuable experience to grow professionally. 

I was working in the same building where the Veriff office is based in Tallinn. So, I already knew some engineers from there and I witnessed first-hand the growth and impact of Veriff. Adding to that, the people that I knew were really happy with their job and encouraged me to join the company as well. I realised that the corporate life that I had at that time was not for me, and I wanted to take on a new challenge - that's how I ended up here. 

I joined as a Software Engineer in the beginning. I really liked the environment in Veriff, so I decided to pursue my professional growth here and test myself in different roles. So, after some time, I became an Internal Tools Team Lead, which gave me a wonderful experience of team management and task delegation. After that, I again got the opportunity to progress and take the role of Technical Owner. In this position, I get to work with Product and Engineering teams at the same time. This gives me a chance to see the product development from every angle - from product planning, to technical planning, to the delivery, and talking to clients. It's an exciting challenge for me.

What were the main challenges for you when changing roles within Veriff?

For me, the main challenge was to set the right expectations and deliver great results because it can be pretty challenging to lead a team of engineers and support a product that is being used by millions of people worldwide. 

I've already been a Technical Owner for over a year, and I'm still learning new things every day. I do have excellent mentors here who help me solve my work-related problems whenever they come up and I'm really grateful for that. So, I think it's really crucial - if you have reliable colleagues who guide you throughout the procedure, it can get easier to overcome challenges at work, leading you to great results.

I usually divide my day between various tasks that I’m in charge of. It involves a lot of Product planning, and knowing what is on the roadmap in the coming months. Also, we do one-to-one meetings with team members to be updated on each other’s progress, and we do some Technical planning as well. Our team consists of three people, and we work closely with other departments too. Most of the time, my tasks as a team lead are about aligning, planning, and following up on what’s happening.

What are the technical challenges that you have to deal with at Veriff?

Currently, we're working on a long-term project, which is very interesting and challenging at the same time. We are trying to build a new system within the company and that involves delivering a micro-service for each business function. This is a project that will take a long time. We have already made some progress and are moving forward step-by-step.

Which of Veriff's values resonate with you the most?

“Always have each other’s back” - knowing that my teammates will always support me in any situation is a great boost of confidence to deliver excellent performance and work. And of course, they expect the same from me too. Here in Veriff, people are always stepping up and doing their best to help each other out on different challenges. I think this is the reason why we are so successful as a company.

How is your international life in Estonia? What activities do you like to do the most?

Outside my job at Veriff, I also run the Dance Studio I mentioned earlier and try to make sure that everything is going great over there - I try to take care of that place as much as possible. Besides that, I'm involved in lots of sports activities such as cycling, running, and going to the gym.

Arina & Andre Haikal - Vals De Invierno - #EuphoriaStudio

Here's Andre and his wife in action, proving he doesn't simply own the studio!
Now it's time for our final quickfire questions.

I just recently finished reading “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. The book is about finding your passion and following it with hard work and dedication. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in overcoming the excuses that block us from achieving something more in life. 

I enjoy listening to the podcast called ‘Philosophize This’. And I also like the Tim Ferris podcast.

Mac. And I have a simple reason for that. I started learning Software Development on Windows with the Ruby programming language. I was spending around 80% of my time configuring various things there. On the other hand, you can just open a terminal on Mac and everything functions perfectly.

If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be?

I think it would be really interesting to be a teacher. I love sharing my knowledge, experiences, and helping others to learn new things.

What would be your advice to anyone who wants to kick start their career in the Engineering field?

Start building projects - learn by doing and implement your knowledge into your ideas. Try to get instant feedback from people on your projects to move forward. This approach will help you keep improving and delivering the results you want to kickstart your engineering career.

Andre Haikal is a Technical Owner at Veriff, but he also owns a dance studio in Tallinn and took quite a journey from self-trained Engineer to the Estonian Start-Up world. Enjoy his story!

A blog interview with Andre Haikal, a Technical Owner in Veriff.

From Tango to Tech - Andre's Journey to Veriff

Identity Access Management (IAM) is a framework of policies that defines and manages the privileges of individual users and devices within an enterprise. It ensures that the right users have access to the resources they need. Using the IAM framework, IT managers can moderate user access to critical information for employees, contractors, partners, etc. 

In this article, we’ll dive deep into this topic to tell you all about the use of Identity Access Management, the metrics, systems, and challenges that come with implementing these frameworks within your company.  

In the beginning, Identity Management Systems consisted of different basic parts. These traditionally involved various authentication methods for verifying an identity, such as passwords, digital certificates, etc. As technology advanced, modern approaches started to develop, which included biometric elements.

Because of the advanced and complex technological environment, there have been many considerable changes in IAM systems over the last couple of years - a strong username and password aren't really effective anymore. Today's most advanced systems include elements of biometrics, AI & Machine Learning, and risk-based authentication. 

IAM is extremely important to protect access to corporate resources, and there is huge organizational pressure for this. Companies need to ensure that they have built the proper information flow systems within their team so that everyone receives the data they need to do their job. This is where IAM plays a considerable role and automatically enables access and control of all corporate assets on-premises. 

Usually, IT professionals think that IAM is for larger corporations and it needs huge financial resources to maintain the system, but in reality, the technology is available to everyone. It has many valuable features and always fits an up-to-date security landscape. We need identity and access management tools in our companies because they can play a significant role in an organization’s security system. This requires IT managers to define their access policies, which then connect all parts of the business, and ensure the company’s information security is managed in an automated way. 

Companies need to take lots of steps to make sure that the right people have access to the correct information. This often requires creating policies and identifying the exact people and roles that want to access specific data. In order to achieve that, IAM is using the principle of least privilege. In this case, the user only has access rights to the information that can help them fulfil their daily work duties. With this real-time access control, IAM helps companies meet risk management and compliance mandates. Modern technologies can determine a corporation's compliance with every requirement they need for proper functioning. 

There are a couple of metrics for the IAM framework that have proven to be applicable in specific scenarios, improving the overall process. There are eight KPI (Key Performance Indicator) sets from the ISO 27001 based identity wheel. Let’s go through them individually.  

This is a simple metric that shows us the quality of the IAM processes. If the number of users in a system is more than the overall number of employees within a company, then something is not right. Monitoring these metrics can help reveal interesting facts about a database.

These can offer a way to gain access to resources within an organization via no longer active accounts. These can be accounts that old employees were using in the past which have not yet been closed down.

These are usually the accounts that have significantly more rights and access than other accounts. IT managers should monitor these accounts properly to avoid risky situations.

This case is slightly different from the previous one because it focuses on accounts that accidentally have too much access. In this case, the focus is different.

SoD is one of the most difficult and costly when it comes to proper implementation. The objective, in this case, is to spread tasks and permissions appropriately across a large number of people. It doesn’t only help us to prevent fraud but also includes privacy and security.

This is strongly interconnected with information security. This metric doesn’t only help to prevent risks, but it also needs less effort to maintain security.

Data quality ensures accurate results from all the controls we talked about above. The relevant data should be correct. Usually, processes are automated with the help of IAM systems, and that’s why this metric is valuable. 

This is a more specific metric that is relevant for particular cases. For example, in financial institutions, employees often need the proper training to perform well in a job. For example, there could be employees that have permissions to access specific systems but haven't yet done the necessary training, and the number of these employees could be an IAM-related KPI. 

A key task that measures the success of IAM systems can be the authentication of users within the company to access the data they need. There are different systems that IAM uses to grant access, ensuring that everything is safe and under control.

SSO systems help to increase productivity for users. With only a username and password, individuals can have access to multiple applications. 

2FA adds another security layer, requiring users to present two identifying credentials to access applications. In addition to the password, it can ask you for a unique code sent to your email address. 

MFA is similar to two-factor, but in this case, we have more security layers. It decreases the chances of a successful cyberattack.

This is a system which securely manages multiple accounts of the users that have given their permissions to the corporate resources of a company. 

There are various tools used for IAM frameworks to simplify the setup process and overall procedures. All of them have a different purpose and use case. You can choose depending on what your company might need in a specific scenario. Let’s break down some of them.

CouldKnox Permissions Management Platform 

CloudKnox manages identities within cloud systems. It has an activity-based authorization system, and uses machine learning to analyze previous activities across all could-platforms.

Microsoft Azure usually works in the cloud but can be extended to physical devices as well. According to available statistics, more than 200,000 customers are using the tool to protect 400+ million users. It has an easy-to-use interface and helps users to monitor activities within their organizations.

CyberArk is the leader of the IAM industry. It breaks down the identity and access management sides into different offerings, giving customers a chance to use the specific type of IAM they need to successfully secure their company.

How to implement Identity Access Management

In order to successfully implement the IAM system into your company, you need to follow the steps that will help you find the most suitable option for you. First, it is necessary to find a person within the company who will play a leading role in developing and enforcing these policies. You need to keep in mind that IAM impacts everyone in the company, and starting to use such a framework comes with its challenges.

If we break down the biggest challenges that your organization might face when you want to implement the IAM framework, then there are multiple factors you need to keep in mind. According to statistics, data protection is the biggest component in this list. Also, integrating with legacy systems can be a huge factor when it comes to IAM. Companies usually struggle to move to the cloud as well, which can be a fundamental factor for successful IAM framework integration in most cases.

In the future, it will be essential for companies, organizations, and corporations to track their data, the identity of those accessing it and constantly keep an eye on proper data protection. Data provides valuable information about a company and the  individuals within it. This information should have appropriate security layers to make sure that individuals who access to the data have correct authorization. Setting the employee access permissions can effectively help to protect data and reduce threats. 

In the future, machine learning will play a massive role in AIM framework development. More and more corporations will start implementing these systems in order to have effective data protection within their companies, which will bring us to the new challenges and approaches that solve new problems.

Here at Veriff, we work hard to make the digital world safer with the tools we are building daily. Our products help companies worldwide to build trust and implement Identity Access Management tools within their organisations. 

We delve in Identity Access Management, how and why it affects modern businesses, and the crucial things you need to know.

What is identity access management? Our complete guide tells you everything you need to know about access management within identity verification software.

What is Identity Access Management? (IAM) | Veriff

Veriff is beyond excited to be partnering with European mobile money app Monese to provide enhanced and secure digital banking services for consumers across Europe. With this partnership, Veriff is adding an extra layer of safety and security to the mobile money app.

Launched in September 2015 as the UK’s first mobile app alternative to traditional banks, Monese provides truly modern portable banking services for mobile money accounts across 31 countries and in 14 languages. Through this partnership, Veriff will seamlessly onboard and authenticate the identity of Monese users to help the company meet KYC requirements, increasing the speed and accuracy of user screening while also preventing identity fraud. With the integration of Veriff’s AI-powered, video-first IDV solution, Monese will be able to focus on their main business priorities knowing that user authentication and trust remains intact. 

“This partnership with Monese strengthens our position in the UK’s highly competitive digital banking market,” says Janer Gorohhov, co-founder and chief product officer of Veriff. “We’re excited to aid Monese in its mission to provide access to fair, flexible financial services and support while minimizing friction as we simultaneously expand our organization’s footprint in the UK via our customer base and team.” 

Atul Choudrie, Chief Commercial Officer at Monese, “At Monese, we help people build sustained financial resilience, by providing access to fair, flexible financial services and support. Working in partnership with Veriff, we are unlocking new possibilities in delivering a safe and efficient onboarding experience that will help us reach more customers.”

Many of Monese’s customers are working in the gig economy, are self-employed, or living in a different European country to that in which they were born, and are not therefore well served by mainstream banks.  Monese helps people build sustained financial resilience by providing access to fair, flexible financial services and support.

The new partnership with Monese further extends this mission as two Estonia-based technology companies grow their operations within key markets. 

Monese is a mobile app alternative to banks, with an account that can be opened quickly and easily. With Monese customers can budget money, track spending and send money abroad right from their mobile phone. Monese makes it easy for customers to deposit their salaries with Monese, set-up Direct Debits or standing orders, and save. Customers can link their PayPal and Avios accounts to their Monese account, as well as pay via Apple Pay and Google Pay.  

Monese is available across 31 countries in Europe and was launched by the entrepreneur Norris Koppel in 2015, after his first-hand experience of trying to open a bank account in another country.

Monese is available in 14 different languages: English, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Bulgarian, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Turkish, Estonian and Lithuanian.

We've partnered with the awesome Monese to add an extra layer of safety and security to their mobile money app. Check the full announcement to hear from both companies about the partnership.

An annoucement of the partnership between European mobile money app Monese, and Veriff, to add an extra layer of safety and security to their app.

Veriff Partners With Monese to Provide Secure Digital Banking for European Consumers

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From Tango to Tech - Andre's Journey to Veriff

What is Identity Access Management? (IAM) | Veriff

Veriff Partners With Monese to Provide Secure Digital Banking for European Consumers