On-Device, Multi-Factor Approaches – and Better Tech – Can Thwart Biometric Spoofing: NNL

Nok Nok Labs is weighing in on the security of facial recognition authentication systems in the wake of recent spoofing claims from a team of University of North Carolina researchers.

Using images collected from social media, the researchers developed 3D face models that could then be used for authentication, succeeding in their spoofing attempts with four out of five such security systems. But in a new blog post on the company’s website, Nok Nok Labs’ Brendon Wilson explains how NNL’s S3 Authentication Suite, along with FIDO Alliance protocols, can help to overcome such security challenges.

For one thing, FIDO and NNL advocate for client-side biometric matching, so an attacker would need to be in possession of a victim’s device in order to authenticate. Another important solution is the use of multi-factor authentication, for which FIDO is also an advocate, and which the S3 Authentication Suite supports with a number of supported biometric modalities including face, voice, and fingerprint recognition, among non-biometric mechanisms.

Such measures should help to prevent even the elaborate spoofing attempts undertaken by UNC’s researchers, but it’s also worth noting (as Wilson does) that newer facial imaging technologies like the infrared scanning supported by Windows Hello enable to production of even more refined biometric profiles, which should further thwart spoofing attempts. Such approaches help to illustrate logical approaches to combating identity fraud as biometric and authentication systems continue to evolve.

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September 8, 2016 – by Alex Perala