Authentication results and sensitivity

Evaluating authentication results

These are the possible results that may be returned from an individual authentication test:

Result	Description
Passed	No indication that the document is fraudulent, therefore the document passed the authentication process. This result does not provide a guarantee of authenticity as some types of documents have very few or no security features.
Failed	One or more authentication tests have failed that indicate that the document may be fraudulent, therefore the document failed the authentication process. This result does not guarantee that the document is fraudulent; however, further investigation should be conducted, either by manual inspection or by using other means to verify the identity of the bearer.
Attention	Document passed the authentication process, however, there is something of note that the user should be aware of. Most commonly this result is returned when an expired document is encountered. In this case, the document may be authentic, but has expired. See the Attention result section for more information.
Unknown	Document type could not be determined; therefore, it cannot be authenticated. This result may occur when a document is inserted incorrectly, overly skewed, or moved during the image capture process. Less commonly, it may also be encountered when a new type of document is captured that is not yet supported by the AssureID document library. This result does not indicate that the document is fraudulent, however further investigation should be conducted, either by manual inspection or by using other means to verify the identity of the bearer.
Skipped	Authentication process skipped entirely. Note This result should only be seen when using the Data Capture license edition of AssureID.

Attention result

If a document passes with Attention for the document result, you should review the tests that were attributed to the result. For example, an Attention can occur if a document has expired. Depending on business rules, this may be very important (such as in the case of passport validity). An Attention can also occur if the back side of the document could not be classified, for example, possibly indicating that someone has falsified the document. If you have a document that has failed some individual authentication tests, you can modify the authentication sensitivity and then rerun the tests to see what overall result changes occur.

Authentication check	Description
2D Barcode Read	Two-dimensional barcode on the document was read successfully
Chip Authentication	Contactless chip in document is authentic (magstripe-specific)
Contactless Chip Presence	Checks for the presence of a contactless chip in the document
Contactless Chip	Checks the contents of the contactless chip in the document
Contactless Chip Read	Contactless chip, if present, was read successfully
Document Classification	Verifies that type of document is supported and can be fully authenticated
Document Expired	Checks whether a document has expired
Document Orientation	Checks that a document was presented in a correct orientation (dependent on the magstripe location)
Magstripe Presence	Checks for the presence of a magnetic stripe on the document
Magstripe Read	Magnetic stripe, if present, was read successfully

Authentication sensitivity

You can set the authentication sensitivity to Very Low, Low, Normal (default), or High depending on your business rules. The Very Low setting (AssureID Sentinel only) lowers the fraudulent document detection rate and may significantly reduce the rate of authentic document rejection. It is not recommended for use in applications where fraudulent document detection is critical. The Low sensitivity setting may result in a lower false reject rate where authentic documents are flagged as suspect, but it can also increase the false acceptance rate (the number of fraudulent documents that passed authentication). The High sensitivity level will result in a higher false rejection rate but will have a lower false acceptance rate. In general, GBG recommends using the Normal setting.

If a document fails an individual authentication test, you can modify the sensitivity before performing additional tests to evaluate the sensitivity setting on the overall result. Scanning a document under each setting (Very Low (AssureID Sentinel only), Low, Normal, and High) illustrates the variability of results from changing those tolerances. GBG regularly performs statistical analysis on documents to determine the optimal rates for sensitivity.

Tamper sensitivity and result

Tamper sensitivity is a separate setting from the Authentication sensitivity, and is used with tests specific to data integrity to determine their individual test results and the overall Tamper Result for the document. The tampering sensitivity tests are based on information gathered from document security features, fake IDs, and customer experience. If the resolution of the document image is below 450dpi, the tampering tests may be skipped altogether.

Document crosschecking

A crosscheck verifies that the data that is listed in multiple data sources (Visual Inspection Zone, MRZ, barcode, magnetic stripe, or contactless chip) is the same. If a data source is unable to be read, the test will not include that source. This process includes a method for allowing common misreads and transliterations, such as an accented or unaccented version of the same character. A document can fail based on the collective frequency of failed crosschecks, which would not cause a document to fail as individual tests. Crosschecks are used to detect significantly different types of data, with the intention of ignoring common misreads and transliterations, such as an accented and unaccented version of the same character. Some crosschecks are dependent on knowledge of the IDs of the fields they are testing. For example, they can’t be used to compare a field on the front of a document to a field on the back.

• Universal crosschecks perform more extensive testing. They look up the fields to crosscheck by prefix and name at runtime and use the inherent reliability of those data sources to determine how important a mismatch is. The following individual crosschecks may be performed on a document:

• Application Date

• Full Name

• Nationality Code

• Birth Date

• Given Name

• Personal Number

• Control Number

• Issue Date

• Sex

• Document Number

• MRZ

• Surname

• Expiration Date

In addition, the Document Crosscheck Aggregation test compares the results of multiple crosschecks and can fail a document based on the collective frequency of failed crosschecks that would not in itself fail a document.