In order to develop and deliver Accops BioAuth, a cutting-edge facial authentication solution with continuous user environment monitoring, Accops, an Indian-origin provider of remote access products and solutions, partnered with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a premier R&D organisation under Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India.

The cutting-edge technology enables businesses and government agencies to quickly establish a trusted working environment and give users of vital apps the freedom to operate securely from any location.

Built using facial recognition technology created by C-DAC, Accops BioAuth aids in the prevention of cyberattacks related to identity impersonation, shoulder surfing, credential sharing, and authentication for highly regulated businesses like BFSI, Pharma, BPO/KPO, and crucial government departments and PSUs. It might also be a remote proctoring tool for educational institutions.

With an attribute that makes it simple to incorporate, Accops' facial authentication solution captures a user's face and verifies it against a pre-registered face template of the user. It works with any cameras that come pre-installed in today's laptops, PCs, and tablets. The centralised Accops BioAuth server set up in the company's datacenter securely stores the user's face template.

When enabled, Accops BioAuth can periodically examine the user's workspace to see if the authorised user is there and to look out for shoulder surfing and identity impersonation. If an anomaly is found, it locks out the user and reports the event to the company for audit.

Accops BioAuth can determine if the user in front of the device is a live person, a static image, a recorded video, or another user wearing a face mask because it is supported by another patented technology for face liveness detection. The system does not ask users to gaze left or right, which is uncomfortable for consumers, or transfer video files that take a lot of bandwidth.

In addition, unlike other market-available solutions, the Accops solution may be integrated with any application virtually immediately, in a matter of minutes, without requiring any modification or upgrade to the application. Additionally, its adaptable workflow makes it easy to implement the "maker-checker process" for user onboarding in any complicated organisational structure.

"A robust user authentication mechanism is the need of the hour to boost cybersecurity and ensures strict compliance with regulatory guidelines. Our facial authentication and liveness detection solution ensures that the users accessing business resources from homes are the same legitimate people who were verified and authorized," says Vijender Yadav, CTO and Co-founder, Accops.

"C-DAC has been developing different technologies and products through R&D Projects funded by our Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India. C-DAC aims to market these technologies and products so that it can be beneficial to organizations and society. Collaboration with Accops is an important step in this direction," says Mrs. PR Lakshmi Eswari, Director, C-DAC Hyderabad.

On the privacy of users, Yadav explains, "At the time of the login or starting the work, the user is informed of such monitoring and asked for his or her consent. Users of critical data and applications are generally aware of the compliance requirements and the need for such monitoring in case they need to work from home. In fact, users working for critical processes and with critical data have been looking for such solutions so that they could also work from their homes whenever needed."

Organizations today require a strong password-less authentication mechanism due to the rise in cyberattacks over the past year, particularly credential thefts, which highlights the need for the facial authentication solution.