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How Is Liveness Detection Selfie Revolutionizing The Digital Financial World?

Blog Gaming 20 Jun 2022

The world is constantly evolving for a better tomorrow. Consequently, fraudsters are adopting sophisticated attacks and threatening businesses with identity theft like never before. In the past, billions of dollars have been lost to identity theft, scams, and deep fakes, creating disastrous effects in the financial world.

One of the most powerful solutions in preventing identity theft is the “Liveness Check,” which performs verification to determine if the person verifying is present or not. In other words, facial biometric verification allows businesses to ensure that the actual person is present, and there is no use of masks or Photoshop skills. Most enterprises are switching from ID checks to 3D video selfie checks in pursuit of a reliable and easy onboarding process.

However, different levels of liveness solutions are performed depending on their level of security, while there are different types of sophisticated attacks.

The 5 Types of Major Frauds In the Digital Identity World

Do you remember when Apple Inc.’s newly launched iPhone X made the world go haywire? Nevertheless, they were successful in delivering the best liveness detection services all around the world.
For several decades, biometric verification has successfully verified individuals in the financial and digital worlds. This is why it is the fastest growing industry. But first, let’s take a look at identity fraud attacks.

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1: Spoof Attack

Wearing a mask is an old trick for fooling the biometric verification process. As a matter of fact, fraudsters use silicone masks, pictures of other individuals, or even mannequins to hack into accounts. These frauds are known as “face spoofing.”

In the digital world, fraudsters can acquire pictures of almost anyone and use them for their own benefit, such as hacking into a system. This is why, when a verification technology fails to analyze the depth of the image, criminals can utilize social media acquired images to hack into devices.

Another spoof attack is by fooling the verification system with pre-recorded videos. This means that these pre-recorded videos can easily bypass the system even when verification systems ask individuals to wink or blink.

Fraudsters also use masks to spoof the liveness detection, performed using a range of props such as paper masks or real-like mannequins. Additionally, silicone masks are also used to deceive verification technologies that do not perform skin texture analysis and other real-face characteristics. These masks are so hyper-realistic that it is almost impossible to detect whether the fraudster is wearing a mask or is a real one. In fact, criminals in France used hyper-realistic masks to impersonate the French Defense Minister. They successfully stole $90 million, stating they needed to give money to terrorists to save kidnapped individuals.

2. Presentation Attack

Biometric verification during life check works by comparing the user’s physical features, such as the distance between their eyes or nose. The mapped features are compared to a biometric template.
A fraudster can exploit the limitation when using face biometrics for authentication to trick the system into believing that it sees the authentic user. This points out to a Presentation Attack, and swindlers nowadays own more effortless access to high-definition shots and videos that can be used to cheat facial recognition software.

Likewise, liveness detection utilizes a biometric technique to estimate and interpret physical characteristics and responses to determine if a biometric sample is collected from a living, present subject, or a still object. Instead of performing matching functionality, the technology detects presentation attacks too.

Bypass Attack

The second attack is when criminals hack the cameras by injecting pre-recorded videos, hacking servers, or editing previously uploaded biometric data.

Printed 2D Masks

A surprisingly cunning way to deceive the liveness detection is to use 2D printed masks having holes in the eyes and mouth. This attack is typically successful because many liveness detection systems require individuals to blink or smile while verifying their identities. Thus, fraudsters place their eyes and mouth in these spaces so that the verification system cannot perceive and therefore conclude that the person is live and not just a picture.

Social Engineering

Usually, fraudsters do not opt for technical knowledge to deceive the liveness system; instead, they focus on ways to cheat the system using photos. This deception is performed using information collected from victims after confirming their data over a phone call or email. The fraudsters then claim that they belong to a company that wants to send them gift hampers, and upon arriving with the gift, they ask for facial recognition for security purposes. Using the secured data acquired from major leaks, criminals gain access to the user’s account and release funds instantly.

How does Facia.ai Help Mitigate Identity fraud?

Biometric verification and liveness detection play a significant role in mitigating identity fraud. Similarly, Facia.ai’s liveness detection system provides some key features for businesses to overcome sophisticated identity fraud attacks. Some of which are mentioned below.

  • 1: Anti-spoofing detects all shady elements when users upload videos of themselves blinking and smiling. For instance, it detects if the video is photoshopped, pre-recorded, static, or tampered with.
  • 2: 3D perception techniques analyze the video’s actual measurement and the nodal points for authenticity.
  • 3: Liveness detection also performs micro-expression analysis to detect minor facial movements of the individual in the live video.
  • 4: Liveness detection also ensures that the individual trying to verify is present and that there are no photoshopped or tampered videos.

Facia.ai’s biometric verification technology has all the innovative features that should be a part of a liveness detection system. Cyberattacks and identity theft have led businesses to opt for face recognition technology that can perform verification in seconds. Facia.ai is a go-to solution that authenticates the identity in seconds and ensures no fake identity bypasses the system.