Sumsub becomes an Associate of ITU-T Study Group 17, the UN's lead international body for security standardization
Sumsub has joined the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies. Sumsub joins as an Associate of the ITU Standardization Sector's Study Group 17 (SG17), which leads the UN system's international standards work on security.
Founded in 1865 and a UN specialized agency since 1947, the ITU brings together more than 190 member states and hundreds of private-sector companies, academic institutions and international organizations to develop the global technical standards that underpin the world's digital infrastructure. Within the ITU, SG17 leads standardization work on cybersecurity, identity management, protection of personal data, and the security of applications and services, including emerging areas such as digital identity frameworks, biometric authentication and the security of AI and distributed ledger technologies.
As an Associate Member, Sumsub will take part in SG17's technical work alongside national governments, regulators and industry leaders from around the world. Sumsub will contribute practical expertise in identity verification, fraud prevention and compliance to the development of ITU-T Recommendations - the international standards used by governments and businesses worldwide.
The membership is the most recent example of Sumub’s formation of alliances with top academia and global institutions to enhance the world’s resilience against AI-powered fraud. It follows their invitation in January 2026 to join the World Economic Forum's Unicorn Community, an invitation-only network of high-growth companies, where they participate in the Forum's Centre for Financial and Monetary Systems.
Bringing frontline fraud intelligence to global standards
Sumsub verifies users and businesses for thousands of clients across fintech, crypto, gaming, marketplaces and other regulated industries, using an integrated system that continuously orchestrates verification, AML compliance, and risk assessment. That work gives the company direct visibility into how identity fraud is evolving, including AI-generated deepfakes, synthetic identities and document forgery at scale. Sumsub intends to share insights from this work with SG17 to help ensure that emerging standards reflect real-world threats and remain practical to implement.
"Fraudsters operate across borders, and the standards that protect people online have to as well,” said Kat Cloud, Head of Government Relations at Sumsub. Joining ITU-T Study Group 17 is the natural next step in helping shape the global conversation on digital trust: it takes that conversation into the United Nations body where the international security and identity standards of the future are actually written. We see our role as bringing what we learn on the front line of fraud prevention every day directly to the table where governments and industry set the rules."
Focus areas
Through its participation in SG17, Sumsub expects to contribute to work on:
- Identity management and digital identity frameworks, including interoperability and assurance levels.
- Security of biometric authentication and liveness detection, particularly in response to AI-driven spoofing and deepfake attacks.
- Protection of personal data and privacy-preserving approaches to verification.
- Security considerations for AI systems used in fraud detection and identity verification.
About ITU and Study Group 17
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies. ITU-T Study Group 17 coordinates security-related work across all ITU-T study groups and develops international standards (ITU-T Recommendations) covering cybersecurity, identity management, countering spam, and the security of applications, services and emerging technologies. More information is available at www.itu.int/go/tsg17.
