Posted by Tokyo, Japan: NEC has built a secure biometric authentication technology, allowing users to authenticate themselves with encrypted face information. This technology reduces the risks of facing information leaks. And it contributes to the expansion of safe and secure biometric authentication use cases.
Secure encrypted face information
With this technology application service providers can encrypt all face information. So even if encrypted face information is leaked, the risk of being misused for spoofing is low.
Moreover, since users have a secret key for decryption, service providers cannot decrypt face information, enabling users to take advantage of the face recognition service with peace of mind.
Face recognition is increasingly being introduced as a means of identity verification. But in the unlikely event that registered face information is leaked, it may lead to misuse, such as spoofing.
Greater attention is being paid to technologies that perform biometric authentication, while encrypting information, such as face information.
Specifically, homomorphic encryption is known to perform authentication processing while biometric features are encrypted, and without deteriorating the accuracy of certification.
However, homomorphic encryption can only perform simple operations, and processing speed is greatly reduced when performing the complex processing required by biometric authentication.
So far it has been limited to “1:1 Identification” used for logging into online services with relatively light processing. Conversely, the method has been difficult to apply for “1:N Identification,” such as facility entry control and transaction settlements, which require greater processing speed.
NEC developed a secure biometric authentication technology to overcome this challenge that can be applied to 1:N Identification. Streamlining the processing of face recognition using homomorphic encryption.
Conventionally, 1:N Identification has required authentication processing that includes complex arithmetic operations that are difficult for homomorphic encryption.
However, this technology reduces processing by focusing on promising candidates through simple operations, rather than processing all registered users.
This narrowing down greatly reduces the number of authentication operations, including complex operations. So that 1:N Identification can be performed at high speed, even with homomorphic encryption.
With 1:N Identification for 10,000 registered users, for example, NEC’s new technology can narrow down the number of user candidates in about 0.01 seconds.
If the system narrows down the number of candidates to about 1% of the total number, it can perform face authentication processing at a speed of about 1 second.
In addition, the use of this technology does not impact the accuracy of certification.
NEC will further develop this technology combined with Bio-IDiom, the company’s portfolio of biometric authentication technologies. And will enhance the safety and security of personal information, entrance control, transaction settlements and more.