The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) serves a user base that is dispersed all around the world, some of it in remote areas. Most users are elderly. And like any benefits-disbursal system, it is an attractive target for fraud attempts. But UNJSPF Public Information Officer Mirko Montuori tells Biometric Update in an interview that despite these challenges, benefits are now delivered faster, with less fraud, due to an app with face biometric authentication. Members are steadily adopting the app, and the UNJSPF is steadily strengthening the app’s security.
The body disburses pensions to former employees of the UN and associated member organizations (like the World Food Program and the International Atomic Energy Agency) in 190 countries around the world. In total, there are more than 80,000 beneficiaries around the world. For years, the UNJSPF relied on paper documents to prove who they are, and eligibility requirements such as that they are still alive.
The organization found this snail mail-based system frequently delayed the process, holding up pension payments to retirees.
“The other thing that we observed was possible fraud, not only by the beneficiary themselves, but sometimes by family members or those who survived the beneficiary,” Montuori says. “In a few cases we had people who were listed as over a hundred years old, up to 120 years old, on file with the fund that resulted in fraud cases.”
The motivation to digitalize the system took on extra urgency with the COVID pandemic.
After carefully considering a range of options, UNJSPF decided to develop an app that users can download onto their mobile device, which stores records of verifications on a blockchain. Those records do not include personal details or the data behind the verifications, such as biometrics, Montuori is quick to add. The blockchain simply records that the verification was completed and met the required level of assurance, to protect user privacy while preserving auditability. Biometrics are instead stored only on the user’s own device.
Geo-localization was also added to the app, he says, to confirm the country the beneficiary resides in.
Major internal UN digital projects are carried out in collaboration with the International Computing Centre (UNICC), based in Geneva, which has developed its own biometric technology. Hyperledger Indie is UNJSPF’s technical partner on the blockchain component of the system.
The organization adapted the app to make it more user-friendly based on early feedback. Montuori explains that regular iteration of the app is expected over time, for instance to deal with emerging quantum computing threats.
The new system launched in 2021, but at first, it was used by only about 20 percent of beneficiaries. Adoption reached 60 percent of beneficiaries last year, and has increased since then, Montuori says. Important context, he points out, is that the user group has an average age well above 70 years old, with many users in their 80s and 90s.
UNJSPF has worked with member organizations and retiree groups to make beneficiaries aware of the app, and it is explained in the letter beneficiaries receive on retirement. In-person support is available for new registrations, and utilized by most recipients. HR staff are trained to help beneficiaries complete the process remotely.
“It was a concerted effort on the technical side and the communications side,” to make beneficiaries aware of the app, Montuori says.
The UNJSPF has also worked with academia to help scale the solution, possibly sharing the app and the costs of operating it with other organizations. The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), based in Washington, D.C. has adopted a customized version of the app already. Talks with several other organizations to expand the app’s use are ongoing, according to Montuori.
Protecting pensions from sophisticated fraud
Fraud incidents discovered by the UNJSPF prior to adopting the new system included spoofs of identity, proof-of-life and country of residence. Since one of the key purposes behind the app’s development was preventing those incidents, the new app needed to be able to detect them all.
The biometric component of the app includes a regularly-updated AI-powered deepfake detection capability to keep up with the evolving fraud landscape.
UNJSPF put the biometric presentation attack detection (PAD) component of the app through an independent evaluation by BixeLab. The successful test found the app compliant with ISO/IEC 18013-3 for both Level 1 and Level 2 attack instruments.
The evaluation revealed that 4.3 percent of Level 2 attacks were successful. The UNJSPF is not vulnerable to these types of attacks, however, as it uses video call verification with a “human-in-the-loop” to mitigate them, UNJSPF Deputy Chief Executive Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio explained to Biometric Update. The PAD evaluation does not assess the entire solution, just the PAD protection algorithms, and BixeLab’s report acknowledges the human supervision element as a security tool that goes beyond the scope of the evaluation.
“Transparency is fundamental whenever biometrics and even blockchain are used,” Montuori says. “We recognize that trust depends not only on the security and the effectiveness of the solution, but also on the safeguards with respect to accountability and privacy.”
The organization has therefore been certified for international standards for data management, information security and AI management.
To meet the needs of the app’s user population, the algorithms were also trained to account for facial changes related to aging.
The result: “So far, there is has not been one attempt where the fraud was not detected,” Montuori says.
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Article Topics
biometric authentication | biometric liveness detection | BixeLab | deepfake detection | fraud prevention | United Nations | United Nations International Computing Centre
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