Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a research arm of America’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is starting up a counter-spoofing program, reports Nextgov. Called Thor, the program’s aim is to find ways to prevent individuals from disguising their biometric data.
IARPA’s concern is with deceptions such as individuals’ use of prosthetics to mask fingerprints and even facial surgery to change face biometrics. With US government agencies like the CBP and the FBI increasingly relying on biometric identification for security purposes, there is a strong desire on the government’s part to ensure that such technologies are effective by enhancing the capability to detect such biometric ‘presentation attacks’.
Thor is planned to be a four-year project, which will unfold in two 18-month phases and a final 12-month phase. The first phase will focus on the detection of known presentation attacks, while the second will look into unknown presentation attacks; Thor won’t go into unknown unknowns for the third phase, but will instead look at how solutions can be implemented in practical terms.
The deadline for vendor proposals is August 15th, and the program will begin in January of next year.
Source: Nextgov
–
June 24, 2016 – by Alex Perala
Follow Us