Using portrait photos still successfully authenticates biometrics, what does the State Bank say?

A representative of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) confirmed that some tests showed that the bank's authentication system was fooled by static images instead of real faces of users. However, according to SBV, this was only because some banks had temporarily disabled the biometric function to ensure the smoothness of the system on the first day of applying the new regulations.

Using portrait photo still successfully authenticates biometrics

In recent days, when biometric authentication has become an issue of great concern to the people, many scammers have taken advantage of customers' difficulties in updating biometric information to appropriate property, causing people to worry.

In addition, according to many press sources, there was a case where a customer tried using a still photo as a portrait to test transferring money from a bank and discovered that the transfer was still successful.

This raises concerns about the real security of biometric measures - which are introduced to protect customers' financial safety.

What did the State Bank representative say?

On July 4, the State Bank organized a workshop on "Solutions to protect customers using banking services" to provide information, exchange and discuss the current situation and propose solutions to protect customers using banking services today.

At the workshop, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung responded, confirming that some tests showed that the bank's authentication system was fooled by static photos instead of the user's real face.

The workshop "Solutions to protect customers using banking services" was held by the State Bank in Hanoi on the morning of July 4. Photo: SBV

However, the Deputy Governor also said that due to the sudden increase in the number of transactions on the first day, some banks have temporarily turned off the biometric function to ensure the stability and smoothness of the system.

"When the capacity increases 10-20 times, it is difficult to avoid local congestion. On average, there are about 2 million transactions per day on the interbank money transfer system with amounts of 10 million VND or more," said the Deputy Governor. "There are one or two banks that, due to the large number of transactions, have turned off the Liveness function to allow transactions to run smoothly."

The Deputy Governor of the State Bank also clarified that the overload here is about the number of requests sent to the banking system. When this function is turned on, the vulnerability of authentication by static image no longer exists.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Son - Technical Director of Vietnam National Cyber Security Technology Joint Stock Company (NCS) - said that biometric authentication technology providers often provide the "Liveness Detection" feature. This technology will help detect whether the image captured by the camera is an image of a living object or a still image or video clip.

The Governor of the State Bank has issued Decision No. 2345/QD-NHNN on implementing safety and security solutions in online payments and bank card payments, effective from July 1, 2024.

Accordingly, from July 1, 2024, online money transfer transactions of over VND 10 million at a time or cumulative over VND 20 million per day will require biometric authentication by fingerprint or face.

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