UK facial biometric firm iProov chosen to help US Department of Homeland Security to enhance & secure cross-border passenger ...
April 16 2018 - 12:34PM
Business Wire
News signals a move into the mainstream for self-service
identity verification at borders
iProov, a leading provider of biometric facial verification
technology, today announced it has become the first British – and
indeed overseas – company to be awarded a contract from the US
Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology
Directorate’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP).
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iProov CEO, Andrew Bud (Photo: Business
Wire)
The contract has been awarded to iProov to help US Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) improve the passenger entry operation
process.
London-based iProov was founded in 2011 by CEO Andrew Bud. The
company’s facial biometric technology, patented in the US and UK,
is used by banks and governments around the world for secure
customer onboarding, logon and authentication, to ensure new and
returning users are genuine and guard against fraudulent attempts
to gain access to personal data or use a stolen identity.
The contract iProov has won will see the company develop
technology that aims to enhance cross-border passenger travel at
unmanned ports of entries while reducing processing time. It could
help US CBP quickly, accurately and reliably identify travellers as
they process through US border crossings.
At the heart of this announcement is iProov’s Flashmark
technology, deployed in its secure, cloud-based facial biometric
verification system that can be accessed via a user’s mobile phone.
In this case, iProov’s technology will work with existing CBP
systems, on which travellers’ details are pre-registered. In the
run up to arrival at the US border, whether at home or en route,
travellers would be able to self-serve the document check that
normally happens at the point of border crossing, by authenticating
themselves securely to their pre-registered photo, via their mobile
phone. The process is simple, much quicker than waiting in line,
and more secure than traditional methods.
Dr. Liam Fox, Secretary of State for the UK Department for
International Trade, commented, “The UK and US are world
leaders in cyber security. Through close cooperation across various
sectors, trade between the two countries has grown to £181.2
billion pounds in 2017 - making the US our largest trading partner
and biggest export market.
“One example of our shared economic and security ties is UK
based iProov technology, which uses cutting-edge facial biometric
verification technology to enhance security and deter those who
seek to cause harm. It is now used by a range of institutions
across the world and will soon be used by the US Customs and Border
Protection, helping to enhance the way it processes people through
US borders.”
The reason iProov was selected comes down to its ability to
detect ‘spoofs’. In a self-serve identity verification environment,
the system must be able to confirm whether or not the person
presenting themselves for verification is genuinely the owner of
the ID credential, not a photo, screen image or doctored video.
iProov has ten granted patents in the UK and US for the technology
that can detect these spoofs, and in this way is uniquely able to
help governments tackle the pressure they are under from increased
traveller numbers to swiftly but securely verify each and every
traveller.
It is this growth in international travel which led the DHS
S&T Directorate’s SVIP to look for partners to help tackle the
cross-border passenger entry operation process. Over 112 million
passengers enter the United States annually and over 1 million
attempt to pass through its borders each day, increasing the
pressure on Customs and Border Protection to facilitate the entry
of international visitors, increase tourism and foster economic
growth while ensuring the highest level of security.
iProov’s CEO, Andrew Bud, who will be speaking about the
contract win while part of a UK trade delegation with the UK’s
Department for International Trade to global cyber security
conference RSA in San Francisco, commented, “We are delighted that
iProov has been selected by the US Department of Homeland Security
to enhance the way in which it processes people through US borders.
Advances in machine learning and AI have enabled a revolution in
facial biometrics in the last few years and we’re now seeing more
and more cases of governments and banks turning to self-service,
spoof-resilient face verification as the biometric of choice to
both increase security and ensure ease of use.”
This is not the first time iProov has been recognised for its
industry leading identity verification technology. The company won
the 2017 National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Dragon’s Den
competition at CYBERUK 2017; it has received a number of grants
from Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency; and in September 2017
was named the sole UK member of the SINET16, a select group of
cyber-security innovators. In the financial services sector its
technology is in live use with banks such as DNB in Norway and
Rabobank in the Netherlands.
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About iProov
Founded in 2011 by CEO Andrew Bud, iProov is a world leader in
spoof-resistant, biometric facial verification technology. Its
technology is used by banks and governments around the world for
secure customer onboarding, logon and authentication, to ensure new
and returning users are genuine and guard against fraudulent
attempts to gain access to personal data or use a stolen identity.
For more information, please see www.iproov.com
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IProovZoë ClarkTytozoe.clark@tytopr.com+44 7833 474
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