My Face is Your Face and also Their Faces, isn’t it?

Hitoshi Kokumai
3 min readAug 10, 2021

Today’s topic is this intriguing report — “‘Master Face’: Researchers Say They’ve Found a Wildly Successful Bypass for Face Recognition Tech” https://gizmodo.com/master-face-researchers-say-theyve-found-a-wildly-succ-1847420710

It reads “computer scientists at Tel Aviv University in Israel say they have discovered a way to bypass a large percentage of facial recognition systems by basically faking your face. The team calls this method the “master face” (like a “master key,” harhar), which uses artificial intelligence technologies to create a facial template — one that can consistently juke and unlock identity verification systems.”

Those researchers have found a way, in our wording, “to drastically increase the False Acceptance Rate of face identification systems”, meaning that face biometrics, when used with a weak default password, would drastically destroy the defense that the weak default password has somehow provided,

The destruction mechanism is examined in this post — https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hitoshikokumai_identity-authentication-password-activity-6825637129641701376-XgjN">Biometrics is to Password what Back door is to Front door

More of the technical details of ‘Master Faces’ are offered in this Unite.AI article — https://www.unite.ai/master-faces-that-can-bypass-over-40-of-facial-id-authentication-systems/

Key References

“What we need to do for NOT achieving Solid Digital Identity”

Removal of Passwords and Its Security Effect

Negative Security Effect of Biometrics Deployed in Cyberspace

External Body Features Viewed as ‘What We Are’

Additional References

For Achieving Solid Digital Identity on Information Security Buzz (Mar/2021)

What We Know for Certain about Authentication Factors

Digital Identity for Global Citizens
Image-to-Code Conversion by Expanded Password System

Summary and Brief History — Expanded Password System

Proposition on How to Build Sustainable Digital Identity Platform

Account Recovery with Expanded Password System

History, Current Status and Future Scenarios of Expanded Password System

Availability-First Approach

Update: Questions and Answers — Expanded Password System and Related Issues

< Videos on YouTube>

Slide: Outline of Expanded Password System (3minutes 2seconds)

Digital Identity for Global Citizens (10minutes — narrated)

Demo: Simplified Operation on Smartphone for consumers (1m41s)

Demo: High-Security Operation on PC for managers (4m28s)

Demo: Simple capture and registration of pictures by users (1m26s)

Slide: Biometrics in Cyber Space — “below-one” factor authentication

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Hitoshi Kokumai

Advocate of ‘Identity Assurance by Our Own Volition and Memory’, Inventor of Expanded Password System and Founder of Mnemonic Identity Solutions Limited in UK.