Uganda To Begin Nationwide Distribution Of Biometric ID Cards To Citizens

The National Identification Registration Authority of Uganda (NIRA) says it will begin a nationwide process on 23 November to distribute digital ID cards to some of its citizens who have successfully applied for the document and enrolled their biometrics but are yet to pick them up after production.

NIRA is the body in charge of managing official personal identity issues in Uganda and is at the forefront of the country’s efforts toward establishing a digital identity backed by fingerprint biometrics for all Ugandans.

In a series of recent tweets on its official Twitter page, NIRA told Ugandans to be prepared for the process that is scheduled to take place for 15 days beginning 23 November at Sub-County level in all of the country’s 111 districts. The exercise is expected to end on 7 December, according to NIRA.

NIRA added that in order for the process to be smooth and effective, it will put a list at the disposal of village area Local Council Chairpersons detailing names of persons whose IDs have been produced but are yet to be signed out.

The body added that details about times and venues for collection will be communicated as shall have been drawn up by the various NIRA district teams who are said to be working in close collaboration with district administrative authorities.

“Members of the public who registered but have not received their National IDs are encouraged to check for their details with the area LC1 Chairpersons before reporting to the designated issuance centres,” said NIRA in one of its tweets.

The body said the distribution exercise, which is about to start, will also see the National ID cards of children who registered under the Registration of Learners exercise and had clocked 16 years at the time handed out to them.

“The national IDs of learners in this category will be issued at the Sub-Counties under which their respective schools fall,” NIRA announced.

This planned ID distribution exercise comes just months after NIRA resumed the issuance of ID cards following about three months of no operations as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Uganda is on the path to issuing digital IDs for all citizens. In 2019, the country secured the services of Muehlbauer, for the production of digital ID cards for Ugandans.

The East African country has since embarked on a vociferous campaign to popularize the initiative, and Muehlbauer said last year nearly 30 million citizens had registered for the permanent biometrics-backed ID number.

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Saudi Arabia To Introduce Iris Biometric System At Entry Points

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US Postal Service Fingerprint Biometric Service For Federal Vetting Surpasses 100 Locations

The United States Postal Service has expanded its biometric fingerprinting services partnership with the FBI to more than 100 locations across the country to help federal agencies onboard and vet employees joining their remote workforces, Federal News Network reports.

The partnership was launched in 2018, before which the FBI took 14 weeks to process fingerprints to complete the applicant’s Identity History Summary Check. The same system can also be used for visa applications, child adoption or approval for non-federal restricted occupations like working with children. More than 30,000 customers have used the service since it launched.

USPS is currently procuring a new biometric solution to implement for its fingerprint program during the fiscal 2022, Director of Identity and Access Management Heather Dyer said at the recent General Services Administration’s identity Impact Summit. Dyer also said USPS is seeking certification to Impact Level 2.

Prior to developing an in-house digital fingerprinting system, USPS had required the 120,000 employees it hires annually to get fingerprinted at police stations, but the lengthy turnaround time prompted the development of the agency’s own service. It has now processed more than 500,000 fingerprints, and with 31,000 post offices located within 10 miles of 99 percent of the U.S. population, has major growth potential.

The biometrics service could also provide a much-needed source of revenue for the cash-strapped agency, which has over $100 billion in unfunded liabilities.

Another potential source of revenue is deploying sensors to USPS vehicles to track air quality, broadband signals and road repairs and provide mapping data. The agency is also working on a confidence score for address claims, and an online identity verification process for its Informed Delivery service.

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Smartphone Biometrics Increasingly Trusted As Banks Stand Up Remote Authentication And Onboarding

New research published by Entersekt suggests smartphone biometrics are the easy way forward for financial institutions adjusting to new payments regulations, just as new approvals, business gains and customer wins are announced by Onfido, Techsign, Idenfy and Smart Engines. Jumio, meanwhile, offers some historical perspective on AML.

Consumer trust in smartphone-based biometrics continues to grow, and smart speakers are likewise increasingly familiar to them for a range of use cases, according to a new white paper from Entersekt and Mercator Advisory Group.

‘Revisiting authentication in the age of SRC and EMV 3-D Secure’ examines the impact of international mandates for Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) and EMV 3-D Secure on the authentication strategies of financial institutions. Mercator argues that issuers need to carefully consider their customer authentication methods to compete for the top of consumer wallets.

Nearly 90 percent of UK residents between 16 and 75 already have smartphones, and customer authentication techniques should be implemented on them, according to the white paper.

“Consumers face an increasingly complex authentication landscape, which can vary greatly depending on the communication channels they use,” states Frans Labuschagne, UK&I country manager at Entersekt. “Multiple authentication techniques create unwanted friction and uncertainty. This paper gives actionable advice to FIs that need to keep security top of mind while also providing a good user experience.”

Onfido remote age verification approved in Germany

Germany’s Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM) has approved Onfido’s age verification technology, which is based on a photo of an ID document and a biometric selfie or live video captured within an app, in an assessment.

KJM found that Onfido’s solution is suitable as a complete “AVS concept,” meeting its criteria for ensuring a closed user group for adults, as specified by the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media. The Treaty requires that content designated harmful to minors only be disseminated to a closed user group that consists only of adults.

As of late-2019, the regulator declared that age verification does not need to be carried out in person, but can be performed remotely through biometrics and a government-issued ID document.

Techsign biometrics revenues boosted by regulatory updates

Regulatory updates in Turkey to support digital transformation and remote identity verification have helped Techsign double its customer base so far in 2020, according to a company announcement.

Techsign reports revenue growth of 80 percent and team growth of 30 percent compared to last year.

Turkey has a young population with high mobile device penetration and usage, and the country has made regulatory changes related to remote customer acquisition and fraud detection which are driving increased demand for identification and verification services like Techsign’s biometrics and document verification, the company says.

Liveness detection demand has also increased significantly, according to the announcement, and goes along with a preference for the use of NFC-enabled smart cards and passports in identity verification.

“Turkey is a market with high digital conversion potential and demand,” Techsign CEO Abdullah Kip says. “The developments in regulation once again proved this fact. In this transformation, Techsign is the market leader in the identity industry by unlocking a way for transformation.”

Idenfy biometrics chosen by global payment platform

Idenfy has been chosen by DSBC Financial Group to secure the institution’s platform from phishing and identity-related fraud and secure its remote onboarding process with facial recognition, ID verification and liveness detection.

DSBC Financial Group provides global payment solutions for current accounts, merchant accounts, foreign exchange, payment cards and cash management. Adding Idenfy’s technology enables DSBC to comply with its know your customer (KYC) and anti money-laundering (AML) obligations faster, with fewer errors and less human involvement, according to the announcement.

“Our remote identity verification service is an optimum solution to mitigate identity-related frauds and improve overall productivity and time efficiency,” states Domantas Ciulde, the chief executive officer of iDenfy.

Kazakhstan bank selects Smart Engines OCR for remote processes

Alfa Bank Kazakhstan in standing up digital onboarding and online payments capabilities through a partnership with Smart Engines to utilize its optical character recognition technology.

Smart Engines AI-based computer vision software provides recognition for Kazakh passports and ID cards, as well as a variety of bank cards for Alfa Bank’s mobile application, with superior speed, accuracy and safety, and a seamless user experience, according to the announcement. The OCR capability works in all natural conditions, Smart Engines says, from low to excessive light, with scanning performed in a fraction of a second and processing performed on the device to maintain the security of private data.

Jumio observes Bank Secrecy Act’s 50th Anniversary

AML in the U.S. has turned 50, with the anniversary of the passage of the Bank Secrecy Act, Jumio points out in a blog post.

The company takes a look at the history of AML efforts in America, from fighting organized crime in the 1970s, through the war on drugs in the ‘80s and the establishment of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 1990. Preventing terrorism has become a more central focus in AML, and FinCEN has become a larger and more forceful organization, Jumio explains.

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Biometrics Will Authenticate ‘Vast Majority’ Of Payments Within Ten Years: Report

Biometrics will likely be used to authenticate the vast majority of payments within the next ten years according to 85 percent of global executives surveyed for a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit and TransUnion.

Smooth digital transactions have become essential to business survival, not just to provide a competitive edge, another 85 percent of respondents say in the report “New Dimensions of Change: Building trust in a digital consumer landscape.” The reports key findings involve the importance of national digital IDs in fraud prevention, where they can play a valuable role according to 79 percent. The vast majority also see super-apps (like WeChat and Alipay) playing a “dominant” role in digital commerce over the next five years.

“While many respondents believe super-apps will be involved in the vast majority of transactions, it’s important to note that a majority of executives think that identity-authentication methods employed by super-apps present ‘worryingly high risks’ to data privacy, demonstrating that association with super-apps can expose brands to breaches in consumer trust,” TransUnion Senior Manager Brooke Snelling tells Biometric Update in an email. “Based on executives’ answers, it is clear that biometrics will play an essential role in risk-based authentication for fraud prevention and security if super-apps are to truly meet their potential.”

Adjusting to the changes already comes with challenges, as two-thirds of executives whose companies changed their digital transaction process in reaction to the pandemic experienced glitches.

The greatest benefit to the use of AI in transactions is in fraud prevention and improved security, according to 43 percent of executives, ahead of the 29 percent who identified benefits to the customer experience as the main benefit.

The security features built into mobile phones, including native biometrics capabilities, vary significantly depending on the price-point of the device, the report observes. While not many executives see this as a major problem for their business, the majority see it as a “slight” or “moderate hindrance.”

Snelling notes that governments have subsidized mobile phone access in some places but the Economist Intelligence Unit found many of those phones do not have particularly stringent security protocols, and some government-subsidized low-cost phones in the U.S. were even found pre-loaded with malware.

“It is clear that any program meant to provide the most up-to-date phones must include the most secure options including the ability to authenticate transactions with biometrics,” Snelling argues. “For businesses, they must recognize that those with less financial opportunities might not have the most current and therefore secure phones. In order to do business with them, businesses must offer other ways to authenticate beyond biometrics with features like one-time password coupled with other authentication methods like step up questions depending on the risk associated with a transaction. Another ‘invisible’ authentication method that can be used is to assess the past transaction behavior associated with a device and/or behavior a device is exhibiting at the time of a transaction like geolocation, recent amount of transactions conducted from the device and more.”

The survey also found that executives see slightly more of their customers as comfortable sharing personal data, including biometrics, with private-sector firms (73 percent) than government (71 percent), though the balance of trust between the public and private sectors varies between countries.

TransUnion launched a fraud prevention solution with biometrics and document authentication for UK businesses earlier this month.

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Hong Kong Crypto Exchange Launches Hardware Wallet With Fingerprint Recognition

The Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Gate.io has launched a new type of hardware wallet that features fingerprint recognition. The device supports over 10,000 cryptocurrencies with wallet.io and multi-signature functionality with over 40 public chains.

The well known cryptocurrency exchange, Gate.io, has announced the launch of the S1 hardware wallet that supports multi-signature functionality and a unique way to keep funds secure. The S1 device is different because it comes with fingerprint recognition located on the in-built display. Gate.io’s CMO, Marie Tatibouet, detailed that the fingerprint creates an exclusive and unique password for every S1 owner.

“The private key is locked in the hardware itself, safely away from the internet, and it makes it more convenient in signature signing when the user makes a daily use transfer,” Tatibouet explained during the announcement.

The company claims all the owner needs is a computer or smartphone and then they can authorize a transfer transaction with a fingerprint. Gate.io believes the S1 framework will also bolster the firm’s Gatechain project and decentralized finance (defi) use cases.

“Wallet S1 can be used in combination with a Vault address at Gatechain,” Gate.io notes. The exchange considers the new S1 device to be “the first hardware wallet with the world-leading fingerprint recognition algorithm which can auto initialize when detecting brute-force attack.” S1 is also powered by the flagship SOC chip and a unique dual- CPU architecture.

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US Army Plans Biometric Authentication Via Wearables For Operational Systems In The Field

As the U.S. Army plans to increase its use of wearables and other technologies, their biometric authentication capabilities could solve operational and cybersecurity challenges, DefenseNews reports.

Network Cross-Functional Team Senior Science and Technology Advisor Donald Coulter said during a webinar hosted by C4ISRNET that advancing government wearable technology for user authentication is among the team’s priorities for next year.

Operational challenges can be posed by using passwords for systems that may have tiny keyboards and be used by people wearing tactical gloves. Common Access Cards and physical tokens are sometimes used for authentication, in addition to passwords. Coulter also said that these latter methods may be broken, damaged or lost in an operational environment.

The Army is also developing a Bluetooth token associated with personnel’s biometrics to replace the CAC.

Wearables could be used for biometric authentication through the user’s heartrate, gait, or skin signatures, according to the article.

Authentication to the Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) will be one of the first use cases wearable-based biometric authentication will be tested with.

“Over the next year we’ll continue to see more and more technologies getting out of the S&T domain and getting into the [project managers] for final prototyping, experimentation, maturation and integration,” Coulter said, according to DefenseNews.

Wearable technology is mature, and biometric authentication through it is highly promising, particularly when the ability to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to the authentication process is considered.

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Biometrics Innovation and Investment on the Rise, Government Digital ID Drive Continues

Innovations in biometric technology and government digital ID are the twin themes of the week’s top biometrics news. A new contactless biometric device from a tech giant with a ready base of deployment opportunities, research into finger vein biometrics, and a prototype of a combined face and voice recognition payment system for automobiles made headlines, while a major contract win by Smartmatic and investments in facial recognition and liveness for online services by Australia’s government show continued digital identity momentum in different contexts.

Government programs involving biometrics and national digital ID in Australia, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Kurdistan, and Kyrgyzstan have all moved forward, with millions of IDs issued and hundreds of millions in investment. The news is hopeful for financial inclusion, birth registration and fair elections.

Amazon has developed a palmprint biometric device for contactless payments at retailers and physical access control. The Amazon One will be deployed to a couple of Amazon Go stores to start with, and the company says it is in talks with potential customers.

Finger vein biometrics are already in use, but a new method for capturing them with photo-acoustic tomography is detailed in a research paper published by Applied Optics. The method was promisingly accurate in early testing, and in theory could eventually make its way to consumer devices like smartphones.

BioCatch has raised $20 million from big banks to grow its behavioral biometrics business, bringing it to $168 million in total funding, and launched an Innovation Board.

A software prototype has been unveiled that could significantly expand the possibilities of automotive biometric payments. DashCam Pay could allow a carful of occupants to separately order and pay for meals through voice and face biometrics, running on a smartphone connected to a standard dashcam.

A major voter biometrics contract with Uganda’s government worth more than $22 million has been won by Smartmatic, while Liberia’s identification agency is requesting more funding. Elsewhere in Africa, Kenya is hoping to save some money by reusing previously purchased biometric equipment, while South Africa’s government is under pressure to put biometric controls in place to stop welfare fraud.

An in-depth exploration of efforts by Nigerian government agencies to improve the country’s digital identity ecosystem shows that government agencies have many of the resources they need to provide digital ID to everyone in the country, but are still in the process of upgrading them, and further coordination and legislation will be necessary.

South Africa’s slow movement on digital identity is hindering its efforts to modernize the country’s economy, Yoti Digital Identity Fellow Tshepo Magoma tells ITWeb. The precedent that seems to be set by the lack of mobile broadband implementation does not bode well for the fast establishment and wide adoption of effective digital ID in South Africa.

Government online service authentication capabilities are expanding in Macau, with a plan to introduce facial authentication, and in Australia, with a tender to add liveness detection to myGovID. A public beta of the myGovID app’s facial recognition feature is now expected to launch in about a year.

The European Commission, meanwhile, has outlined its vision for digital identity on the continent at a European Digital Identity Roundtable meeting. The vision involves new guidelines which would promote increased access to digital public services, and possibly the further development of eIDAS regulations.

A Privacy International representative tells Thomson Reuters Foundation that “(t)he imbalance of power between governments and citizens, lack of flexibility and involuntariness” renders invalid any consent for the use of facial verification, supplied by iProov, in Singapore’s SingPass national digital ID program. A government agency representative defends the program’s privacy protections, though the legitimacy of consent is not further discussed.

Evernym’s Alex Preukschat and Drummond Reed discuss the principles of self-sovereign identity and their new book of the same name in a TechTarget interview. They talk about path through federated identity to decentralized identity, beyond the systems that claim to provide SSI, and their hopes that the book can help bring the concept to the mainstream.

The responsible use of biometrics and privacy and security in digital identity are discussed by Omidyar Network Beneficial Technology Principal Govind Shivkumar and host Cameron D’Ambrosi of One World Identity’s State of Identity podcast. Shivkumar says that in a world suddenly “awash with data,” it is imperative for essentially all actors, not just governments, to take privacy and security seriously. He also identifies “responsible biometrics” as one of the few areas of potentially major opportunity for new entrants in the digital identity ecosystem.

Edge AI chips from Qualcomm that can power facial biometrics on cameras, as well as 5G integrations, have reached the market, along with an Edge Development Kit. The chips are capable of processing up to 24 video streams at 1080p simultaneously, and process up to 400 trillion operations per second (TOPS) in top-line configuration.

Accuracy gains have been announced for one of the leading face recognition algorithms in NIST testing with a new version release from Paravision. The company’s CPO Joey Pritikin tells Biometric Update that Paravision’s face recognition toolkit has been optimized for a range of operating environments, including the network edge, through collaboration with leading semiconductor makers.

The acquisition of Beam Solutions by Jumio builds out the anti money-laundering capabilities of the biometric authentication company’s new KYX Platform. Jumio VP of Marketing Dean Nicolls explains to Biometric Update in an email how Beam’s technology fits into the platform.

Incognia CEO and Founder André Ferraz argues that fraudsters can easily target fingerprint and facial biometrics, relative to behavioral biometric data, in a guest post this week, and Bethwel Njore of Swiftlane reviews the use of biometrics for access control by modality and use case in another.

Onfido CEO and Co-founder Husayn Kassai has been named ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ for London and the East of England during the virtual ceremony for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2020, in recognition of business success beyond the expectations associated with his age. In a company blog post, Great British Entrepreneur Awards Founder Francesca James is quoted as lauding his “wonderful entrepreneurial story.”

In a week that has been relatively quiet on the BIPA front, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul discusses the recent changes to the state’s data breach law with The Privacy Advisor. The amendment makes it mandatory to report all breaches of 500 or more people’s data, and gives new powers to the Attorney General’s office. Raoul calls biometrics “the ultimate forms of sensitive information” and warns of systems using biometrics to track people’s whereabouts inside establishments, which could raise privacy and constitutional concerns.

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Vein Biometrics Could Answer Security Challenges of Face Recognition

Vein recognition is a biometric modality around which activity has picked up substantially, in terms of research but also pilots and new products. Nok Nok Labs VP of Products Rolf Lindemann tells Biometric Update in an email interview that while vein biometrics is still a relatively young field, “it’s showing a wealth of promise for the security landscape moving forward.”

Hand-based vascular biometrics have been around since the early 1980s, Lindemann writes, with the near-infrared (NIR) Veincheck system invented by Joe Rice.

“In essence, some of today’s research is focused on thermal infrared (a technology that cannot easily be used with today’s CCD chips) to depict the blood vessels and structure of veins in the human face. This thermal infrared imaging brings unique physical properties that can help identify cyberattacks like presentation attacks, spoofing and more.”

Because current mobile phones already include NIR sensors, Lindemann argues the industry should focus on leveraging that technology to achieve mass adoption.

The diameter of the average blood vessel is only 10 to 15 micrometers, he points out. Finger and palm vein biometrics can be captured without high resolution cameras, whereas people expect image capturing to take place at a larger distance for face-based systems. Recent advances in CCD camera resolutions has made facial vein biometrics a practical option, however, according to Lindemann.

Asked about the advantages of vein recognition over facial recognition-based liveness detection systems, Lindemann answers that Face Unlock on Jelly Bean and tests showing 3D printed heads unlocking mobile devices reveals the persistence of security concerns around that technology.

While 3D imaging makes presentation attacks more difficult, Lindemann takes the evidence of 2D photos being used to 3D-print masks that spoofed Face ID successfully, and other research,  as indicating the limits of this technology. Lindemann also notes that face masks can be ordered online.

One of the two big advantages of vein recognition, Lindemann says, are the difficulty of surreptitious or involuntary capture; “There is no “Facebook” for face vein images at this time,” he points out. The other is the extreme difficulty of building a spoof of someone’s veins into a face mask. Beyond these advantages, twins who facial recognition systems cannot distinguish between also have different vein patterns.

Lindemann notes that Apple’s patents on vein recognition mention the use of infrared or near-infrared light, and that the CCD sensors typically used in smartphones can detect light in the NIR range, but most smartphones also include “NIR blocking filters.”

“These “NIR blocking filters” would have to be “switchable” by the “secure” authentication component. Most devices today already have a secure authentication component inside the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE),” Lindemann explains. “So the missing piece would be the dynamic way to switch such filters on or off. This is required to ensure that only the secure authentication component can switch it on when doing authentication.”

Beyond this, the devices would also need to run the appropriate software, which would operate within the trusted execution environment (TEE), to implement biometric face vein recognition. Some devices, like the iPhone, already have switchable NIR blocking filters for their 3D cameras, Lindemann observes.

Vein recognition could represent another layer of biometric security integrated with the face recognition systems already used in many applications.

“One of the most important considerations regarding vein recognition is its ability to combat the security challenges that come with other existing facial recognition technologies. For example, facial vein detection can improve presentation attack protection because the technology relies on infrared-light detectable veins, which are not included when printing facial images or even face masks today.”

Compliance with the FIDO protocols make the face vein recognition system’s security even more robust, Lindemann says, and the FIDO Alliance is likely to make its specific requirements for presentation attack detection even more strict over time.

Vein recognition can also defend against other scalable and targeted physical attacks, which Lindemann says both involve their own unique challenges and concerns. Not only are billions of stolen passwords available for sale on the dark web, but millions of smartphones are lost or stolen each year, and each is vulnerable to physical attacks, he suggests.

The answer to each problem, according to Lindemann, could lie in vein biometrics.

“Through vein recognition, security protocols can be amplified to better protect against the attacks that are plaguing companies and consumers the most,” he concludes.

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Biometrics in the Medical Industry Is Blooming- What’s Next?

This is a guest post written by Sarah Amundsson, senior business developer at Shufti Pro.

Data security is an increasing concern of most industries due to evolution in the digital world. Medical industry is not safe from this complication either. Ever since the HITECH act requiring all medical records to go online, was put in effect, it has become easier for the hackers to target patient data and cause problems for both patient and healthcare providers. Biometric verification can be a great way to identify the patient and secure the data from unwanted breaches, but is it really enough? To answer how biometric authentication can be improved, let’s first understand how biometric authentication is playing its role against data breaches and medical identity theft.

Healthcare in need of security

The medical data of a patient is worth a lot more than the credit card information of the person in the dark web or black market. The biggest obstacle the medical industry faces, even during COVID-19, is securing the personal information of the patients. According to the Black Book research, above 93 percent of the healthcare system has faced some kind of data breach over the past 5 years.

One of the reasons why medical information of a person can be stolen is to get hands on prescription drugs. These drugs can be used by underage children, drug addicts or drug traffickers. With access to medical records, fake billing and insurance theft can occur which can affect both patients and the hospital. Medical identities are also stolen to get treatment under someone else’s name to avoid paying for expensive medical bills.

Stolen medical identity does not only lead to insurance fraud and loss of money, it also leads to life threatening situations for the victim. Medical history of the patient can be altered which can result in mistreatment, especially in case of emergencies. Both the healthcare industry and insurance companies can end up paying the price in the form of lawsuits, penalties and bad reputation.

IBM did an annual study on Cost of a Data breach and according to it, it costs around $3.9 million on average data breach. In nine straight years, medical companies have to face the highest cost of data breach around $6.5 million.

Biometrics as a security measure

Biometrics is a security measure based on a person’s unique biological features as a way to verify their identity. It could be their face, finger print, iris, or even their voice. These unique features are the person’s identifiers that are paired with technology and used as a way to verify the identity of the person. Then whenever a person’s identity needs verification, they just have to get their identifiers scanned against the system. If the identity is not verified then the system will alert the authorities of the identity thief.

Healthcare industry is in dire need of a biometric authentication system. According to the Grand View Research, the demand for biometrics in healthcare is expected to increase to $14.5 billion by 2025 as there is a growth in information exchange in the healthcare industry.

With the help of biometric verification, the healthcare industry can ensure that only the right people get access to medical records. The identity of the staff can also be verified and access can only be granted to people who are authorized. Biometric authentication will also help in case of emergency when there is no time to fill the manual forms. It also ensures that the medical history is correct and the treatment procedure is carried out safely.

However, the fraudsters have found a way to twist this system as well. Biometric system is facing spoof attacks. A spoof attack happens when a person impersonates someone else by using false information and then tries to gain access illegally. A fraudster may spoof the algorithm of biometric by using an image, face mask, video etc. of the victim to impersonate them. For fingerprint verification they can use a fingerprint clay to steal someone’s fingerprints. There are many ways the spoof attack can be carried out and this is why we must have a more enhanced system to support biometric authentication technology.

What is Next?

Video KYC is the answer to all the problems faced by biometric authentication. Biometric combined with KYC compliance can make it impossible for the criminals to use a fake or stolen identity; hence defeating the purpose of identity theft.

KYC is the process of identifying the customer/client by getting their personal information and then verifying their identity against the given information. Video KYC is the improved version of simple KYC systems that uses live video call with a KYC expert to identify and verify the identity.

How video KYC works is that a person is connected with a KYC expert through a video call. Then the KYC expert asks a few questions to the person and asks them to move their head. The face of the person is also verified through 3D liveness detection. This is done to be certain that the person is physically present and no video is being used. Then the person is asked about their personal information with their consent which is recorded as evidence. After that person is then asked to show their government-issued ID document in the video call. The authenticity of the ID document is verified through an AI-based solution to check if the document is not fake or has been tampered with.

This process will only take a few minutes and the medical identity of the person will be deeply secured. This process uses both artificial intelligence and human intelligence so the room for error is extremely low, and combining it with biometric technology reduces error chances to zero.

About the author

Sarah Amundsson is a senior business developer at Shufti Pro. Sarah leads customer-facing teams and plays a key role in driving customer goals and product utilization. As an expert in digital identity verification, she helps businesses deploy solutions globally to solve KYC, KYB and AML problems for both for individuals and businesses.

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