Dispel launches biometric identity proofing for OT remote access

Dispel has added government ID verification, facial matching and liveness detection to its operational technology (OT) remote access platform, allowing organizations to verify the real-world identity of users before granting access to industrial systems.

Dispel Identity validates a government-issued identity document and compares a live facial image with the portrait on the document. The company says the process is delivered through an accredited provider to NIST Identity Assurance Level (IAL) 2.

“Credentials can be phished or handed off, allowing attackers to use the front door to gain access to your organization’s most important assets,” says Ethan Schmertzler, co-CEO of Dispel.

NIST defines IAL2 as an identity proofing process that collects and validates identity and verifies that the applicant is associated with the claimed identity.

Dispel describes its identity proofing process in three stages.

Resolution confirms that the applicant represents a real person, validation checks if the government-issued identity document is genuine, and verification uses liveness detection and facial comparison to confirm that the applicant matches the portrait on the document.

Once verified, the person is assigned an identity record that can be linked to enterprise identity provider accounts, local credentials, and shared vendor accounts. The capability is available within the Dispel Zero Trust Engine.

“Dispel Identity is the standard that OT remote access has always needed, giving you the confidence and control to know exactly who is in your system,” Schmertzler adds.

This is important in OT environments, where industrial operators may provide remote access to equipment manufacturers, system integrators, maintenance providers, and other third parties.

CISA notes that industrial remote access architectures can include vendor sites, partners, and external providers, and the remote access can expose the control systems to cyber threats.

A compromised credential can provide a route to systems controlling production equipment, utilities, or safety-related processes. Actions performed through those systems can have severe consequences for plant operations.

Dispel Identity allows operators to decide when stronger identity assurance is required. Using the Policy Builder, an organization can trigger verification according to the type of user requesting access, the sensitivity of the asset, and the location of the connection.

Dispel says the identity verification service supports government-issued documents from 195 countries and uses face matching technology benchmarked through NIST evaluations. The platform supports one-to-one (1:1) and one-to-many (1:N) facial identification.

The company claims that the biometric data is encoded as a “non-reversible and non-reconstructable format.” The customers can select processing in the United States or the European Union.

Article Topics

biometric liveness detection  |  biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  Dispel  |  face biometrics  |  IAL2  |  remote identity proofing