FaceTec Appoints Former SSA OIG Official as Director of Biometric Cybersecurity

During her tenure at SSA OIG, McNamee-Wicks conducted complex investigations into fraud detection, internal and external employee violations, disability fraud, and impostor detection. As Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Investigative Support Division, she provided national guidance on agency policy and procedures, managing over 40 tasks including reporting to the FBI and Congress.

Her distinguished career includes recognition as a Certified Economic Crime Forensic Examiner (CECFE) and more than 40 performance awards. Notable honors include the WIFLE Outstanding Federal Law Enforcement Employee award and New York State Police Letters of Commendation for her work during the David Sweat and Richard Matt manhunt. She also received the Commissioner Award for her participation in the government response to the 9/11 attacks.

“Nicole joins FaceTec at a very important point in our history,” commented FaceTec CEO Kevin Alan Tussy. “She will help lead the adoption of our UR Code protocol by federal and state governments, and educate about the benefits of our 3D Liveness and 3D Face matching software, which are the state-of-the-art in digital identity verification.”

In so doing, McNamee-Wicks could ultimately play a pivotal role in a wide-ranging transformation of identity verification architecture across the US and beyond. UR Codes are designed to encode both the biographic and biometric data of a given individual into a scannable QR code. This provides an irrefutable link between the person’s face and a given identity credential: For example, if a driver’s license issuing authority were to adopt the system, everyone who is given a driver’s license could be authenticated with a simple face scan (through a mobile device), which would compare their data to what’s on the QR code, validating each genuine match with absolute confidence.

McNamee-Wicks expressed enthusiasm about her new role, highlighting FaceTec’s focus on liveness-proven biometrics and its ability to prevent fraud and identity theft across multiple industries. “FaceTec provides users safe and secure methods to prove their identity through a software-based solution available to everyone, regardless of their device,” she noted. “I look forward to serving the industry and our partners to help solve their increasingly important identity-related challenges.”

The appointment comes at a time when the biometrics industry faces increasing challenges from deepfake fraud and other sophisticated security threats. FaceTec has positioned itself as a leader in addressing these challenges, not only through its sophisticated liveness and identity verification technologies but through participation with third-party groups like the Digital ID & Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) to contribute to the development of authentication standards and guidelines.