Why Certifications Matter in the Biometric Authentication Industry
16 July 2025
Why Certifications Matter in the Biometric Authentication Industry
16 July 2025
The biometrics industry is still nascent. There are hundreds of different products offering different solutions for different use cases - from military surveillance or recovering a bank account.
As a result, there are different ways to spoof biometrics, so different scenarios need to be tested. The way that a technology can match two faces in light and dark conditions varies. The same is for different skin tones and camera qualities.
Certifications play a crucial role in this - they give the buying organizations peace of mind that these evolving technologies are offering the appropriate levels of security, user experience, and privacy.
Product Certifications
A product certification ensures that the system can be trusted to work accurately, even under challenging circumstances.
NIST FRVT 1:N and 1:1 Recognition
The NIST Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) is one of the most widely recognized benchmarks for evaluating facial recognition technology.
- The 1:N test, which compares a sample against a database of millions, ensures that the technology can perform in environments such as border control or large-scale surveillance systems.
- Similarly, the 1:1 test, which verifies one-to-one identity matches, is crucial for applications like mobile devices or secure access.
This certification is particularly important for industries like travel, finance, and government, where the accuracy of the system directly impacts the safety and efficiency of operations.
Achieving high rankings in this test shows a vendor's ability to perform accurate matches even when working with large datasets.
Keyless Result in Testing
1:N: Keyless ranked 11th out of over 150 vendors, achieving 99.93% accuracy across 1.6 million identities.
1:1: Keyless ranked among the Top 50 globally, outperforming direct competitors in the Mugshot category, which tests accuracy under real-world identity verification conditions.
ISO/IEC 30107-3
Biometric systems must be equipped to handle attempts to spoof or trick the technology. The ISO/IEC 30107-3 certification focuses on ensuring that biometric systems are capable of detecting presentation attacks.
This certification is particularly important in industries like banking and finance, where the threat of identity fraud is high.
This certification involves evaluating a biometric system's ability to distinguish between real biometric data (e.g., a person’s live face) and fake data (e.g., photos, masks, or videos). The system undergoes various attacks that simulate attempts to deceive the technology, such as using printed images or videos of faces, to verify that it can detect and reject fraudulent samples.
FIDO2 Certification and FIDO Biometrics Certifications
The FIDO Biometrics certification evaluates biometric systems for their ability to resist spoofing attempts, maintain user privacy, and ensure a user-friendly experience. This includes ensuring that biometric data is stored securely and that the system does not expose personal data.
On the other hand, the FIDO2 certification focuses on passwordless authentication, testing systems against the FIDO Alliance’s standards. This includes ensuring that the system provides secure, private authentication while protecting against common attack vectors like phishing or man-in-the-middle attacks. The FIDO2 certification also ensures that the system is easy to integrate into real-world applications such as websites and apps.
Keyless Result in Testing
Keyless obtained both certifications in 2018 and was the first vendor to obtain both.
Regulatory Compliance Certifications
In addition to product performance certifications, compliance with various regulatory frameworks is essential for ensuring that our biometric systems meet the requirements for handling personal data, especially biometric data, which is considered highly sensitive.
eIDAS Certification: Ensuring Trusted Digital Identities
eIDAS (electronic Identification and Trust Services) is a European regulation that sets the standards for digital identity services. Certification under eIDAS guarantees that a biometric system meets high standards for secure electronic identification, which is crucial for sectors like banking, government services, and healthcare.
Keyless Result in Testing
Keyless is certified for Identity Proofing Services under the EU's eIDAS regulation, which sets the standards for digital identity services. This certification is critical for our work with digital wallets and government services, enabling us to operate across the European Union with confidence.
PSD2/SCA Compliance: Strengthening Payment Security
The Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) is a European regulation aimed at reducing fraud in financial transactions. Under PSD2, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) mandates two-factor authentication for many online payments.
A biometric system that complies with PSD2/SCA standards ensures that payments are authenticated securely.
Keyless Result in Testing
As part of our compliance with the European Union's Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), Keyless meets the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.
GDPR and CCPA Compliance: Protecting User Privacy
Privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US are crucial for protecting individuals’ sensitive personal data, including biometric data.
Keyless Result in Testing
Keyless is fully compliant with both the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
This is because Keyless ensures biometric data is never stored or processed in a way that could compromise user privacy.
Security and Quality Standards
Security and quality are central to the development and deployment of biometric systems. The following certifications underline our commitment to maintaining the highest standards in these areas.
ISO 27001
ISO 27001 certification ensures that a biometric vendor has a comprehensive Information Security Management System (ISMS) in place. This certification helps organizations safeguard sensitive biometric data against data breaches.
Keyless Results in Testing
Keyless is certified to ISO27001. This proves and ensures that our systems are protected against unauthorized access and that user data is handled securely at all stages.
ISO 9001
ISO 9001 certification is a widely recognized standard for quality management systems. This certification ensures that vendors follow best practices in product development and service delivery, with a focus on continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, and consistent performance.
Keyless Results in Testing
Keyless is certified to ISO 9001. It reflects our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.
The Importance of Certifications
For any company operating in the biometric authentication space, certifications are more than just formalities - they are a vital part of building trust with users, clients, and regulatory bodies.
Our solutions meet global regulatory requirements, product certifications, and security best practices. Find out more about our certifications here.
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Consumer Solutions
Workforce Solutions
PSD2/SCA Compliant
GDPR Compliant
CCPA Compliant
FIDO2 Certified
FIDO Biometrics Certified
ISO 27001 Certified
ISO 9001 Certified
ISO/IEC 30107-3 Certified
NIST Accredited
eIDAS Module Certified