The Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently partnered with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and others to host a series of test events around technologies designed to combat identity fraud. S&T’s Senior Advisor for Biometrics and Identity Arun Vemury says some of the findings were surprising—and transformative.
The test events, or Remote Identity Validation Technology Demonstrations, evaluated the ability of commercially available systems to authenticate identity documents, assess the "liveness" of selfie photos, and evaluate identity verification using images taken with smartphones and similar devices. The testing was held at the Maryland Test Facility in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, with varied results. But this is not a bad news story – it is both a predictable outcome and an important stage in the process of working with industry to level up capabilities. It is less about accepting the status quo and more about asking “How good is it now and how do we do better?”
While it might be surprising to some, the technology that yielded the best results focused on facial recognition. One reason this may be the case is that the U.S. government has been evaluating face recognition technologies for decades using an independent test and evaluation feedback loop between government (independent tester) and industry (technology developer). The other tracks, which focused on liveness (is the photo a real person?) and document authentication, have not had the historical benefit of that same level of testing and feedback.
Working with industry to bring together technology developers and organize industry challenges is something that S&T can do well. This kind of public-private partnership helps elevate and advance technology for use across multiple sectors. Because we don’t have a competing interest, we can help bring these industry competitors together, foster collaboration and create a space where we can learn together. I expect that, just like we saw massive improvements with face recognition in the last decade, we could see similar performance gains from these other technologies through similar public-private partnerships.
When I was young, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency held its self-driving car challenge, which was a prize competition to spur development of autonomous ground vehicle technology. Using structured industry challenges centered on efforts with clear goals and performance criteria was a major inspiration for our launch of these Rallies in 2018.
These challenges not only provide transparency into government needs but also create a level playing field for a diverse range of developers from established firms to agile startups. Clearly articulating priorities, needs, and outcomes can motivate developers to use their own resources to quickly create cutting edge solutions that may serve both public and commercial sector needs. This accelerates the innovation cycle and fosters an ecosystem where the best ideas can rise to the top.
Additionally, it’s critical for S&T to bring capabilities to the process through rigorous independent testing. By testing solutions against objective performance benchmarks, S&T can help identify the most promising technologies and provide constructive feedback to developers. This feedback loop is vital not only to refine current offerings but also to guide future innovation. Through this challenge-based approach, the S&T is helping shape a more responsive, competitive, and effective technology marketplace delivering results that benefit both national missions and broader society.
These technology challenges can create a level playing field with clear rules and success criteria to evaluate innovative commercial technology solutions. Running evaluations like these on a regular basis can help developers plan and iteratively make improvements. We are working towards automating the process to make it easier for companies to submit their technologies for future evaluations and have additional rallies planned.
S&T is also examining information about new threat vectors through partnerships with various stakeholders, both within government and the private sector. For this reason, we are well-positioned to evaluate commercial solutions using a variety of real-world inspired attacks and provide timely feedback to industry, so they have a chance to identify potential issues in their technical solutions.
This model has been such a success, we plan to expand its use. There is currently another Rally planned around a Selfie Match to Document track. Participants will be selected at the end of April. Subsequent challenges will follow, and updates will be captured on the Maryland Test Facility site.
Visit S&T’s Biometric and Identity Technology Center page for more information about this work.