The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay), to develop a touchless biometric capture system for fingerprint authentication, according to a press release issued on April 10, 2023. The UIDAI stated that the new system will allow fingerprint authentication from home, a process similar to face authentication. As per the press release, UIDAI and IIT Bombay will carry out joint research to build the mobile capture system and also to integrate the “liveness model” with the capture system. The liveness-check of fingerprints refers to a method of detection that checks if the fingerprint, or any other biometrics, is of a real person and not a spoofed one. The introduction of the mobile capture system has come in after the UIDAI rolled out an artificial intelligence-based mechanism for two-layer fingerprint authentication in February 2023. After a long silence over the issue of financial frauds carried out via the Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System (AePS), this is the second time the UIDAI has focused on restricting spoofing attempts. Why it matters: Whether or not the new mechanisms will tackle security lapses in the Aadhaar ecosystem is something to keep an eye on. In the last three years, recurring instances of AePS frauds, the latest of which was reported in Andhra Pradesh, have shown that gangs in different states are able to crack the system, steal fingerprints and siphon off money from people’s bank accounts. This indicates that the security mechanism is not robust enough for…
