François Chung, Ph.D.

Tag: authentication

EAB Research Projects Conference 2022

EAB Research Projects Conference 2022

EAB Conference, Germany (2022). The 9th edition of the EAB Research Projects Conference (EAB-RPC 2022), which is organised by the European Association on Biometrics (EAB), is currently the largest event on research funded by the European Union (EU) in the area of biometrics and identity management. Over the previous editions, EAB-RPC has become the main forum in Europe where attendees can promote research carried out in biometrics.

Day 1

Main topics:

  • Border management and internal security in EU;
  • Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS) app;
  • European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) app;
  • Document and biometric identity verification;
  • Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) technologies.

Day 2

Main topics:

  • PAD framework for facial and voice data;
  • Recognising Covid-19 through biometrics;
  • Generative models for video generation;
  • Biometric usage in smart border control technologies;
  • Predicting and monitoring technology acceptance;
  • Workload reduction in biometric identification;
  • Use and regulation of new biometric data;
  • Spoofing-aware speaker verification;
  • Predicting and managing migration flows.

Day 3

Main topics:

  • Analyzing ID experts in morphing attack detection;
  • Morphing attack potential;
  • Morphing applied to face templates;
  • Including biometrics into blockchain.

References

Conference

Related articles

Digital identity wallet (Zetes project)
Identity proofing (Zetes project)

Cybersecurity specialization

Cybersecurity specialization

Coursera training, MOOC (2022). This specialization from The University of Maryland (US) covers the fundamental concepts underlying the construction of secure systems, including the hardware, the software and the human-computer interface, with the use of cryptography to secure interactions. These concepts are illustrated with examples drawn from modern practice, and augmented with hands-on exercises involving relevant tools and techniques.

Course 1: Usable security

Main topics:

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI);
  • Design methodology and prototyping;
  • A/B testing, quantitative and qualitative evaluation;
  • Secure interaction design;
  • Biometrics, two-factor authentication (2FA);
  • Privacy settings, data inference.

Course 2: Software security

Main topics:

  • Low-level security: attacks and exploits;
  • Defending against low-level exploits:
  • Web security: attacks and defenses;
  • Designing and building secure software;
  • Static program analysis;
  • Penetration and fuzz testing.

Course 3: Cryptography

Main topics:

  • Computational secrecy and modern cryptography;
  • Private-key encryption;
  • Message authentication codes;
  • Number theory;
  • Key exchange and public-key encryption;
  • Digital signatures.

Course 4: Hardware security

Main topics:

  • Digital system design: basics and vulnerabilities;
  • Designing intellectual property protection;
  • Physical attacks and modular exponentiation;
  • Side-channel attacks and countermeasures;
  • Hardware trojan detection;
  • Trusted integrated circuit;
  • Good practice and emerging technologies.

References

Training

Usable security (course certificate)
Software security (course certificate)
Cryptography (course certificate)
Hardware security (course certificate)

Related articles

Blockchain essentials (Cognitive Class training)
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies (Coursera training)

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Identity proofing

Identity proofing

Zetes project @Brussels, Belgium (2021). Identity proofing consists in verifying for a given level of assurance that a person, who is claiming an identity, is indeed the correct person. This identity proofing process can be performed manually by a human operator, either on site (through physical presence) or online (remotely through videoconference), but also automatically (e.g. fully automated online or in a controlled environment).

At the European level, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is working on technical specification ETSI TS 119 46 to lay the foundations on a new identity proofing standard, whose aim is to be applicable in areas such as the issuance of electronic identity (eID) and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, with several person types considered: natural person, legal person, and natural person representing a legal person.

One of the objectives of this specification is to provide controls against two main identity proofing threats:

  • Falsified evidence: A person claims an incorrect identity using forged evidence;
  • Identity theft: A person uses valid evidence associated with another person.

Therefore, implementing identity proofing requires a risk-based and outcome-based approach where requirements can be tuned up to a desired level of assurance (i.e. degree of certainty) of the result, depending on the context (e.g. purpose of the identity proofing, regulatory environment, acceptable risk regarding the result of the process).

In this project, my tasks are related to the analysis of technical specification ETSI TS 119 46 so as to investigate what parts of the identity proofing process are already developed and available at Zetes (and therefore could be reused), how the missing parts can be implemented in practice and what are the possible impacts of the implementation on the existing products and solutions.

References

Project

Related articles

Learn more

ETSI - European Telecommunications Standards Institute

PKI for identity documents

PKI for identity documents

Zetes project @Brussels, Belgium (2021). A Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a set of physical components (e.g. computers and hardware), human procedures (e.g. checks and validation) and software (e.g. system and applications) intended to manage the public keys of the users of a system. The objective is the secure electronic transfer of information for a range of online activities, such as e-commerce and electronic identification (eID).

In the case of electronic identity documents, such as the identity card, a PKI makes it possible to bind public keys to the identity of citizens, whose personal information is not only printed on the identity card, but also stored in the identity card chip. This system not only allows citizens to use their card to identify themselves online (authentication), but also to sign digital documents using a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES).

A PKI can also be used in an international scheme, such as for the verification of passports at country borders. In that case, a country emits passports for its citizens and also puts in place a PKI to allow other countries to check those passports. This means that, when a citizen presents a passport at the border control, the inspection system checks the identity information both printed on the passport and stored in the passport chip.

As a Functional Analyst and Product Owner within Zetes People ID’s development team, my tasks are related to the analysis of PKI software needs, whether internal or from the customer (e.g. requirement gathering and product presentation), PKI software implementation (e.g. software releases and documentation) and project management (e.g. project coordination during change requests).

References

Related article

Identity proofing (Zetes project)

Learn more