Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EINSTEIN (Interoperable applications suite to enhance European identity and document Security and fraud detection)
Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30
Combatting frauds on identity and travel documents is a key mission of law enforcement agencies and border guards. Industries have been working on new means to combat frauds on identity, and public authorities are using numerous technologies to accomplish their mission, but permanent innovation is required to fight highly skilled defrauders. A number of European innovation projects have tested new ways to combat fraud but few of them reached an operational level.
EINSTEIN objectives is to enhance significantly existing public authorities’ means through innovation, building on technologies proven in the labs but not mature for an operational usage yet. EINSTEIN will deliver six applications essential to fight identity frauds: 1) online ID issuance using a secure cloud-based server for real-time biometric quality checks and fraud detection, 2) mobile document and identity checks using commercially available smartphones, 3) document authentication module to detect fraudulent documents, 4) pre-registration for land-border crossings including biometrics and DTC, 5) EES kiosk with advanced fraud detection using video surveillance, 6) fast track for enrolled travelers using on-the-move face and iris. To ensure TRL7 at a minimum, practitioners will run six different pilot use cases in their own environment. A key objective is also to ensure interoperability and flexibility of all the components developed in the project so that they can be reused in different contexts, possibly by different providers. Design of open, well-defined, standardized interfaces will allow achieving this objective.
Privacy being an essential concern of all European citizens and governments, EINSTEIN will take into account privacy-by-design principles, developing flexible components to ease their customization in order to meet not only the European legislation on data protection but also national legislations on this matter, which vary significantly from one country to the other.
EINSTEIN objectives is to enhance significantly existing public authorities’ means through innovation, building on technologies proven in the labs but not mature for an operational usage yet. EINSTEIN will deliver six applications essential to fight identity frauds: 1) online ID issuance using a secure cloud-based server for real-time biometric quality checks and fraud detection, 2) mobile document and identity checks using commercially available smartphones, 3) document authentication module to detect fraudulent documents, 4) pre-registration for land-border crossings including biometrics and DTC, 5) EES kiosk with advanced fraud detection using video surveillance, 6) fast track for enrolled travelers using on-the-move face and iris. To ensure TRL7 at a minimum, practitioners will run six different pilot use cases in their own environment. A key objective is also to ensure interoperability and flexibility of all the components developed in the project so that they can be reused in different contexts, possibly by different providers. Design of open, well-defined, standardized interfaces will allow achieving this objective.
Privacy being an essential concern of all European citizens and governments, EINSTEIN will take into account privacy-by-design principles, developing flexible components to ease their customization in order to meet not only the European legislation on data protection but also national legislations on this matter, which vary significantly from one country to the other.
During it's first period, the EINSTSEIN's consortium submitted 11 deliverables and achieved three milestones. The project established its management framework, defined technical, end-user and ethical requirements, and completed initial development of six applications addressing document issuance, identity checks, and border control scenarios.
Technical work focused on developing fraud detection capabilities including morphing attack detection, presentation attack detection, and document authentication. Initial versions of applications were created and tested in controlled environments with end-user participation. Privacy-enhancing technologies including federated learning, homomorphic encryption and EBSI were integrated into relevant applications.
User engagement included requirement gathering through surveys and workshops with border and law enforcement authorities. Living Lab sessions were conducted for all pilot use cases, providing continuous feedback for application refinement.
Ethical and legal considerations were addressed through impact assessment workshops and establishment of requirements frameworks. The Ethics Advisory Board provided recommendations on data protection, human autonomy, and system governance. Data protection assessments were initiated for several applications.
Dissemination activities included conference presentations, contributions to five ISO/IEC standards, and stakeholder meetings. The project website and social media channels were established. A stakeholder board was formed, though recruitment proved challenging.
The project now enters its second development cycle with field testing planned to validate performance metrics, gather operational feedback and continue application refinements. The consortium continues working toward achieving project objectives within the 36-month timeframe.
Technical work focused on developing fraud detection capabilities including morphing attack detection, presentation attack detection, and document authentication. Initial versions of applications were created and tested in controlled environments with end-user participation. Privacy-enhancing technologies including federated learning, homomorphic encryption and EBSI were integrated into relevant applications.
User engagement included requirement gathering through surveys and workshops with border and law enforcement authorities. Living Lab sessions were conducted for all pilot use cases, providing continuous feedback for application refinement.
Ethical and legal considerations were addressed through impact assessment workshops and establishment of requirements frameworks. The Ethics Advisory Board provided recommendations on data protection, human autonomy, and system governance. Data protection assessments were initiated for several applications.
Dissemination activities included conference presentations, contributions to five ISO/IEC standards, and stakeholder meetings. The project website and social media channels were established. A stakeholder board was formed, though recruitment proved challenging.
The project now enters its second development cycle with field testing planned to validate performance metrics, gather operational feedback and continue application refinements. The consortium continues working toward achieving project objectives within the 36-month timeframe.
During the first 18 months, EINSTEIN has advanced well beyond the state-of-the-art in identity verification and fraud detection by combining novel technical developments, scientific dissemination, and standardisation impact. Cutting-edge contributions include the development of multiple morphing attack detection (MAD) and presentation attack detection (PAD) algorithms, privacy-preserving biometric solutions through federated learning, homomorphic encryption and EBSI implementation, and multimodal verification in biometric corridors. These advances have been validated through high-quality scientific publications in leading conferences and journals, positioning EINSTEIN at the forefront of biometric security research. In parallel, consortium partners ensured direct transfer of results to standardisation activities, shaping ISO/IEC standards on biometric quality, morphing attack resilience, demographic variability, and biometric corridors. By coupling scientific excellence with practical integration into standards and pilot applications, EINSTEIN is setting new benchmarks for secure, privacy-preserving, and trustworthy identity management solutions in Europe and beyond.