Why liveness detection is imperative for foolproof digital identity verification

Forward-looking organizations tirelessly strive to innovate, creating new paradigms and setting trends. COVID-19 has triggered/unleashed a new wave of operational demands, forcing business leaders to redefine routine–yet crucial–tasks. 

Customer onboarding is one of the processes that’s undergoing significant transformation. The conventional approach entails an in-person validation of users’ identities and credentials. Such inefficient options are being rapidly replaced by digital identity verification methods. 

Biometric techniques are the fundamental elements powering such tools, and face recognition from photos and videos is their primary focus. Remarkable technological developments in this domain have led to a multifold improvement in processing speed and accuracy. The capability to identify, extract, and compare faces from photographs and videos has inspired a new generation of digital KYC and remote KYC applications.

Unfortunately a few stumbling blocks need to be tackled. As biometric analysis gets better, so does the sophistication of spoofing attempts. Fraud detection has become an increasingly vexatious exercise, with tricksters launching newer attacks every day. An intelligent tool that can spot such attempts is critical for fail-proof authentication.

The many “faces” of spoofing

Legacy digital identity verification services are characterized by regular face recognition checks. The lack of authentication of the customer’s physical presence renders these methods insecure, making them easy targets for a variety of presentation attacks:

• Photo attacks: Impersonation with someone else’s photo is understandably common. Finding images on the internet is not just easy; it practically costs nothing.  
• Video attacks: Again, one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to find videos online and reuse them for video KYC.
• 3-D mask attacks: What if the imposter in the image is wearing a 3-D mask? Designing and creating an authentic-looking mask is now possible with modern 3-D printers.
• Deepfake attacks: Powerful computers can create and re-create stunningly realistic images. These deepfakes can thwart conventional identity validation techniques.

What exactly is Liveness Detection?

The underlying objective is to affirm if the user is a live person. Broadly, liveness detection is of two classes:

• Passive liveness detection involves no specific action from the customer except for the uploading of a selfie photo or video. This technique attempts to determine the liveness from a single static image or a series of frames from the video with complex and powerful AI algorithms.
• Active liveness detection seeks interactive responses from the customer during a verification session. The user is asked to perform a specific action, and the response is evaluated using AI-enabled visual analytics. 

What are the options for liveness checks?

Liveness detection revitalizes digital KYC and remote KYC processes and infuses robustness in biometric assessments. A good combination of passive and active liveness check shall be deployed to achieve liveness check. Although technologically complex, passive liveness checks are very intuitive and doesn’t induce any additional process step on to the users. However, active detection can also be laced with gamification and made fun to use. Typical steps in active detection…

• The customer is asked to respond to a cue.
• The user’s reaction is captured.
• The response is analyzed.

Randomized prompts prevent presentation attacks from dynamically changing tack to offer the expected responses. 

Gesture checks are widely employed. The application may ask the user to  perform a head gesture. (such as nodding) or the face gesture (smiling or blinking for a certain number of times). An AI-powered visual analytics tool tracks the gesture and determines if the response is correct. 

Also there are few applications that seek the user to speak a few specific words, and the system evaluates the response using speech recognition.

Fraud detection and safeguarding against spoofing attacks are critical today. Digital identity validation can no longer be considered reliable unless it’s authenticated by liveness checks.

Future-proof your identity verification process now

Digid is a digital onboarding solution that facilitates faster, robust, and secure authentication and onboarding of customers. Built with cutting-edge AI technologies, the solution helps organizations enhance operational efficiency, comply with e-KYC needs, improve customer satisfaction, and grow their market share. 

Leverage real-time digital identity verification services augmented with liveness detection. Be ready to revolutionize/transform your account opening and customer onboarding processes. 

The future of onboarding will be driven by digital technologies. Let’s help you get there.