As part of its ongoing Remote Identity Validation Technology Demonstration (RIVTD), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently began a third track of challenges for identity verification technologies.
Those challenges will help S&T and its partners – the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Homeland Security Investigations Forensic Laboratory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – assess the capabilities of remote identity validation technologies focused on fighting fraud. This will include the authentication of identity documents, calculating the realness of selfie photos, and weighing the identity verification capabilities of smartphone images.
“Since announcing the Remote Identity Technology Validation Tech Demo, we have garnered a tremendous response from diverse stakeholders,” Arun Vemury, S&T senior engineering advisor for identity technologies, said. “The emergence of new, powerful, widely accessible technologies underscores the importance of facilitating the development and evaluation of tools to combat fraud.”
The first track of the RIVTD challenges focused on the documents side of things, while Track 2 turned to fraud detection. For Track 3, the focus will be on remote identity validation systems and their ability to differentiate between actual users and attackers impersonating other users. With the threat of fake media rising year after year, RIVTD is meant to help step up the game of verification technologies, which are far more limited than their opponents to date.
“As remote ID validation technologies become more prevalent, liveness/presentation attack detection of bad actors or impersonators will be a critical component of remote, self-enrollment of an individual’s digital identity,” Jason Lim, TSA identity capability manager, said.
Interested technology developers must apply to join RIVTD by the end of Feb. 29, 2024. The results of these test should help inform new standards, tests and requirements for U.S. agencies, their international partners and stakeholders.