New EU benchmark targets AI threats to KYC systems

Insider Spotlight

• MITRE ATLAS has published an iProov Red Team attack scenario showing how face-swapped injection can evade mobile KYC checks
• The case study spotlights a growing gap in “active liveness” defenses as deepfakes become more convincing and easier to deploy
• iProov is urging organizations to prioritize vendors tested against the European CEN 18099 standard, which sets rigorous protocols against injection attacks
  
  

Remote identity verification has become a default requirement for onboarding in financial services, banking, and crypto. MITRE’s publication underscores a “critical security gap” where Know Your Customer (KYC) processes can be bypassed through readily available, face-swapped imagery injection techniques.

Why it matters

The finding elevates the role of standardized, adversarial testing. The statement points directly to the European standard CEN 18099, describing it as establishing “rigorous testing protocols against injection attacks” and “a significant advancement in remote identity verification security standards”.

Between the lines

It argues that many active liveness approaches are increasingly exposed because they depend on visual artifacts and user movement that AI-generated deepfakes can now replicate. It also highlights a practical bypass route: swapping a phone’s camera feed using virtual camera applications to evade device-level controls.

What they’re saying

"The strength of MITRE ATLAS lies in the breadth and quality of the community that supports it. Contributions from across industry, academia, and government—ranging from red-team findings to operational threat insights—are essential to advancing the accuracy and completeness of the MITRE ATLAS knowledge base,” Doug Robbins, vice president of MITRE Labs, said in a press release on Dec. 17, 2025.

“When organizations openly share data and expertise, we collectively enhance the security and resilience of AI-enabled systems and the nation,” Robbins added.

“We’ve seen an explosion in attack vectors relating to identity verification over the last 12 months, largely driven by advances in generative AI and the wide availability of low cost tools,” said Andrew Newell, chief scientific officer of iProov. 

“The publication of this latest MITRE ATLAS case study is part of the vital process of identifying and documenting such methodologies. The pace of evolution is only ever likely to increase, making it essential that all organisations examine their own defences against these new tactics without delay.”

What’s next

For regulated industries, the immediate takeaway is procurement and assurance: shift from checkbox liveness claims to evidence-backed performance under injection-focused testing, with CEN 18099 increasingly positioned as the bar to clear. —Vanessa Hidalgo | Ed: Corrie S. Narisma

An attack scenario demonstrated by Mitre’s in-house Red Team has been published by Mitre Atlas, a global knowledge base focused on adversarial threats to AI-enabled systems.