Page 46 - EngineerIT May 2022

TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, NEW PRODUCTS AND PEOPLE

Identity confirmation in under 30 seconds:

How biometrics became lightning fast and accurate

ow do you do trust someone you can’t meet in person? It’s a question
organisations have been grappling with in the age of the internet, KYC
Hrequirements, and the rapidly escalating costs and consequences of identity fraud.
“Enter biometrics with liveness detection, a state-of-the-art solution that onboards
customers securely, easily, and quickly,” says Lance Fanaroff, Co-Founder and Chief
Strategy Officer, iiDENTIFii.
Traditional facial recognition methods have been rendered almost obsolete as
fraudsters use sophisticated spoofs that exhibit human traits including photos, videos,
deepfake puppets, masks and dolls. “Even authentication processes with gesture and
motion requirements to overcome this problem can be thwarted. Blinking your eyes and
moving your head is inadequate and can still be spoofed,” says Fanaroff.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful weapon in the fight against
identity fraud which increased by a staggering 337 percent in 2020 according to
the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) and cost the South African
government R1 billion in bogus Covid-19 relief claims.
“The most effective way to close the glaring identity gap is through AI biometrics
which uses liveness detection to determine that it is interfacing with a genuine, physically
present human being before they are even asked to present a valid ID document, which is Lance Fanaroff
a big deterrent to fraudsters who do not want their real face on camera,” notes Fanaroff.
He adds that identity fraud has historically been difficult to detect and even harder to Fraud carries legal risks together with the
combat as fake identities look just like real customers. “Gaps in fraud prevention capabilities possibility of severe reputational damage
partly stem from human error as well as an absence of source data to verify individual and loss of public trust and is a risk most
identities. AI can proactively mitigate fraud with real-time detection far quicker and more organisations simply cannot afford to
accurately than any human can. iiDENTIFii’s own remote biometric digital authentication take.”
technology can verify and automatically on-board a person in under 30 seconds. “By comparing the user’s selfie
This pioneering technology has already been extensively tried, and stress-tested at and ID document data with relevant
scale in South Africa. 4d liveness™ as we refer to it at iiDENTIFii, at this point in time, is government databases, iiDENTIFii’s
the most spoof-resistant method of remote digital biometric authentication.” 30-second triangulation technology
Fanaroff says remote authentication and verification is fast becoming part and parcel accurately authenticates someone’s
of doing business as the world, along with its communications, customers and commerce, identity. In the time it takes to snap a
moves exponentially online. “Not being able to efficiently spot bad actors leaves a selfie, advanced algorithms and AI stops
company and its customers open to significant losses. These losses are not only financial. fraudsters in their tracks.”

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