Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SafeTravellers (SafeTravellers: Secure and Frictionless Identity for EU and Third Country National Citizens)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2024-12-31
To answer the rise in identity attacks and the vulnerability of identity and travel documents, SafeTravellers project offers a new frictionless, secure and efficient border crossing experience. It proposes reliable identification and identity verification thanks to a two-fold solution combining an innovative identification method based on multi-modal biometrics and an enhancement of travel and identity document verification through a novel set of tools to detect identity and travel document fraud as well as attacks on biometric systems. This will not only strengthen European security through improved and reliable identification but also drastically reduce strains at the borders for border authorities and travellers alike by seamlessly identifying both Europeans and Third Country Nationals (TCNs) reducing stops at the border. The project is built around privacy and fairness with numerous data security measures and complies with existing and upcoming regulations.
The project’s key objectives include:
• Strengthening fraud detection through next-generation biometric authentication and document verification techniques.
• Enhancing border crossing efficiency by streamlining identification processes and reducing workload for border authorities.
• Ensuring compliance with EU privacy and security standards by integrating privacy-preserving technologies.
• Facilitating interoperability with current and future EU border management frameworks.
• Providing policy recommendations to support evidence-based decision-making in EU border security.
By achieving these objectives, SafeTravellers contributes to the European Commission’s vision for smarter and more secure border management while aligning with broader security, mobility, and privacy policies at the EU level.
The project’s key objectives include:
• Strengthening fraud detection through next-generation biometric authentication and document verification techniques.
• Enhancing border crossing efficiency by streamlining identification processes and reducing workload for border authorities.
• Ensuring compliance with EU privacy and security standards by integrating privacy-preserving technologies.
• Facilitating interoperability with current and future EU border management frameworks.
• Providing policy recommendations to support evidence-based decision-making in EU border security.
By achieving these objectives, SafeTravellers contributes to the European Commission’s vision for smarter and more secure border management while aligning with broader security, mobility, and privacy policies at the EU level.
In the first year of the SafeTravellers project, significant progress has been made in designing and developing an ecosystem of technologies aimed at equipping practitioners with new tools to enhance border operations in static airport scenarios and mobile scenarios at land, sea, or rail borders. The platform’s design is grounded in fundamental identity management principles and an analysis of user needs, gathered from Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and Border Guard Authorities.
The proposed SafeTravellers platform encompasses three key phases:
1. Issuance Phase – Covers the issuance of the physical Identity Document (ID) and the secure storage of the user’s reference biometrics.
2. Pre-Travel Enrolment Phase – Conducted prior to travel performing identity and biometrics-based identification of the traveller.
3. Validation Phase – Takes place at the border, where identity and biometric verification are performed.
In tandem with identity verification of the traveller, via the Wallet, the identification process includes biometrics-based traveller identification. The European Multi-Biometric Data Space (EMBDS) concept is a further core component in SafeTravellers ecosystem. It ensures the privacy and security of biometric information of travellers while enabling secure biometric matching. A key innovation of SafeTravellers' EMBDS is its homomorphic encryption component, which enables biometric verification within the encrypted space. A set of optimized technologies for capturing, extracting and processing person, document and biometric data ensures an easy-to-use and seamless border process in static and mobile scenarios. The overall identity verification and biometrics-based identification process is run in coordination with the SafeTravellers Fraud Detection Layer, acting as a safeguard against sophisticated attacks targeting both biometric data and travel documents. Analysing risks related to fraudulent identity documents, data integrity threats from sensor attacks, and biometric falsification techniques results in several new AI technologies integrated into SafeTravellers design. A threat intelligence module completes the thread detection layer, using advanced crawling techniques to provide meaningful insights regarding potential threats to the authorities.
The outputs of all components are fused by a multi-biometric fusion, which generates a risk quantification assessment. The risk output is accompanied by an explanation, which is returned to the relevant authority to determine the most appropriate response strategy.
The proposed SafeTravellers platform encompasses three key phases:
1. Issuance Phase – Covers the issuance of the physical Identity Document (ID) and the secure storage of the user’s reference biometrics.
2. Pre-Travel Enrolment Phase – Conducted prior to travel performing identity and biometrics-based identification of the traveller.
3. Validation Phase – Takes place at the border, where identity and biometric verification are performed.
In tandem with identity verification of the traveller, via the Wallet, the identification process includes biometrics-based traveller identification. The European Multi-Biometric Data Space (EMBDS) concept is a further core component in SafeTravellers ecosystem. It ensures the privacy and security of biometric information of travellers while enabling secure biometric matching. A key innovation of SafeTravellers' EMBDS is its homomorphic encryption component, which enables biometric verification within the encrypted space. A set of optimized technologies for capturing, extracting and processing person, document and biometric data ensures an easy-to-use and seamless border process in static and mobile scenarios. The overall identity verification and biometrics-based identification process is run in coordination with the SafeTravellers Fraud Detection Layer, acting as a safeguard against sophisticated attacks targeting both biometric data and travel documents. Analysing risks related to fraudulent identity documents, data integrity threats from sensor attacks, and biometric falsification techniques results in several new AI technologies integrated into SafeTravellers design. A threat intelligence module completes the thread detection layer, using advanced crawling techniques to provide meaningful insights regarding potential threats to the authorities.
The outputs of all components are fused by a multi-biometric fusion, which generates a risk quantification assessment. The risk output is accompanied by an explanation, which is returned to the relevant authority to determine the most appropriate response strategy.
SafeTravellers introduces key advancements in border security:
• Frictionless Identification: Uses multi-biometric profiles for seamless border crossing, reducing manual checks.
• European Multi-Biometric Data Space: A secure, privacy-preserving database enabling real-time biometric identification across Member States, compliant with Gaia-X.
• Advanced Security Mechanisms: Enhances biometric verification with homomorphic encryption and federated learning.
• Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) & Mobile Passport: Integrates privacy-preserving features and GDPR compliance, ensuring interoperability with eIDAS v2.
• AI-Driven Risk & Identity Assessment: Fuses multiple biometric modalities with AI to assess risk and improve security decision-making.
• Identity Fraud Detection: Uses AI and machine learning to identify forged or altered identity documents.
• Biometric Attack Protection: Detects morphing, look-alike, makeup, and presentation attacks through deep-learning analysis.
• Data Security in Transactions: Implements attestation mechanisms and HW key management to counter TOCTOU attacks.
• Interoperability with EU Systems: Ensures seamless integration with EES and ETIAS.
• Situational Awareness & Threat Intelligence: Monitors unusual events and patterns to support border security.
For successful adoption, further efforts may include large-scale field trials, regulatory refinements, and integration with upcoming digital identity frameworks.
• Frictionless Identification: Uses multi-biometric profiles for seamless border crossing, reducing manual checks.
• European Multi-Biometric Data Space: A secure, privacy-preserving database enabling real-time biometric identification across Member States, compliant with Gaia-X.
• Advanced Security Mechanisms: Enhances biometric verification with homomorphic encryption and federated learning.
• Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) & Mobile Passport: Integrates privacy-preserving features and GDPR compliance, ensuring interoperability with eIDAS v2.
• AI-Driven Risk & Identity Assessment: Fuses multiple biometric modalities with AI to assess risk and improve security decision-making.
• Identity Fraud Detection: Uses AI and machine learning to identify forged or altered identity documents.
• Biometric Attack Protection: Detects morphing, look-alike, makeup, and presentation attacks through deep-learning analysis.
• Data Security in Transactions: Implements attestation mechanisms and HW key management to counter TOCTOU attacks.
• Interoperability with EU Systems: Ensures seamless integration with EES and ETIAS.
• Situational Awareness & Threat Intelligence: Monitors unusual events and patterns to support border security.
For successful adoption, further efforts may include large-scale field trials, regulatory refinements, and integration with upcoming digital identity frameworks.