Aware Raises the Bar with Industry-Leading Biometric Certifications and Evaluations

BURLINGTON, Mass., Feb. 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As generative AI accelerates the scale and sophistication of identity fraud, Aware, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWRE), a global leader in biometric identity and authentication solutions, is strengthening trust in its technology. The company today announced independent third-party evaluations and certifications validating the performance, fairness, and real-world readiness of its biometric liveness and identity verification technologies.

Deepfakes, synthetic identities, and injection attacks, where manipulated biometric data is injected directly into authentication flows, are no longer edge cases. They are increasingly scalable and harder to detect with traditional liveness approaches. For businesses, this shift raises the stakes, driving higher fraud losses, regulatory exposure, and customer friction when security disrupts user experience. Independent validation is essential to ensure identity technologies perform reliably under real-world attack conditions.

"Proof of identity lives in humans, not in credentials or user IDs," said Ajay Amlani, CEO of Aware. "Biometrics remain the only way to prove identity at the source, but deepfakes and injection attacks have become a systemic risk. Aware applauds the tenacious work of the individuals setting these global standards, and customers should demand that their vendors comply with these industry-standard certifications to ensure they have the maximum protection available against this systemic risk."

Independent Validation Against Modern Attack Scenarios

To support this need, Aware technology has undergone a series of third-party evaluations designed to assess security, fairness, and performance under realistic conditions.

Aware Intelligent Liveness was independently evaluated in accordance with ISO/IEC 30107-3, the international standard for Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Presentation Attack Detection (PAD), following testing conducted by BixeLab, an NVLAP-accredited biometric testing laboratory. ISO/IEC 30107-3 defines standardized methods for assessing how effectively biometric systems can detect spoofing attempts using artifacts or manipulated biometric presentations, including advanced attacks designed to bypass liveness detection.

Across all three levels, Aware Intelligent Liveness demonstrated highly secure, frictionless performance, with zero false rejections of legitimate users at Levels 1 and 2 and 100% successful user completion at Level 3. Attack detection performance strengthened as attack sophistication increased, including zero successful attacks at Levels 2 and 3, where more advanced and realistic spoofing techniques were used. Together, the results demonstrate consistent performance across a range of attack scenarios, validating Aware Intelligent Liveness' ability to balance fraud resistance and usability.

"Independent testing is critical in liveness detection, because attack techniques evolve constantly," said Dr. Mohamed Lazzouni, CTO of Aware. "ISO/IEC 30107-3 compliant PAD evaluation helps customers understand how a solution performs against sophisticated presentation attacks, beyond vendor claims or controlled demos."

Addressing Fairness and Consistency Through Bias Testing

Aware also completed independent biometric bias testing through BixeLab, NVLAP-accredited to conduct testing according to the internationally recognized standard ISO/IEC 19795-10, which evaluates whether biometric systems perform consistently across demographic groups. The test evaluated the Aware solution at a system level for both liveness and matching in realistic operating conditions, with outstanding results applicable to border control/eGates, national ID systems, financial services onboarding, mobile authentication and enterprise access control. The recent round of testing builds on the company's top performance in the NIST Face Analysis Technology Evaluation (FATE) 2023 benchmarking test, as well as Aware's consistent top tier performance in lack of bias in NIST FRTE 1-1 (see January 2026).

Bias in biometric systems can lead to uneven security outcomes and diminished trust, making independent testing essential. The evaluation confirmed that the Aware system performed consistently across all tested age, sex, and ethnicity groups at the evaluated operating configuration. These results provide strong assurance that the solution applies liveness and matching decisions fairly and reliably across diverse populations under the assessed conditions.

"Third-party validation and bias testing play an essential role in building ethical and trustworthy biometric systems," said Ted Dunstone, CEO of BixeLab. "Independent assessments help the industry move toward technologies that are not only secure, but fair and transparent for the people who rely on them."

Real-World Evaluation Through DHS RIVR Participation

Aware also participated in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 2025 Remote Identity Validation Rally (RIVR), a government-led evaluation designed to assess remote identity verification technologies under realistic and sophisticated attack conditions.

Conducted in partnership with DHS Science and Technology Directorate, TSA, NIST, and other federal stakeholders, the RIVR evaluates how systems assess liveness from selfie images, match selfies to government-issued identity documents, and perform at scale across devices and environments. The program helps inform standards development and deployment decisions for both commercial and government use cases.

In the DHS 2025 RIVR Selfie-to-Document Match track, under the alias of MTDS1, Aware was one of only five vendors to meet all DHS-defined high performance goals. Among those top performers, Aware was one of only three to achieve zero failure-to-extract rates for both selfie and identity document images—indicating consistent, high-quality processing under real-world conditions. Of those three systems, Aware also demonstrated the lowest false match rate (FMR) across both random imposters and demographically similar imposters, highlighting its ability to maintain strong security even in more challenging, look-alike fraud scenarios. Together, these results underscore the Aware ability to deliver accurate, resilient identity verification at scale, aligned with the real-world risks DHS designed the RIVR to evaluate.

Strengthening Identity Assurance Beyond Passwords

In addition to biometric and liveness evaluations, Aware recently achieved FIDO2 Server Certification, validating its ability to securely support passkey-based authentication layered with biometric verification.

FIDO2 certification confirms compliance with FIDO Alliance standards for cryptographic authentication and interoperability—requirements increasingly expected in regulated and high-assurance environments such as payments and financial services. When combined with Intelligent Liveness, this approach helps ensure real user presence, mitigate phishing and automated attacks, and maintain fast, user-friendly identity flows.

To learn more about Aware Intelligent Liveness capabilities, visit the team at booth #502 at MRC Vegas, March 16-19 at the ARIA Resort & Casino.

About Aware

Aware, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWRE) is a proven global leader in biometric identity and authentication solutions. Its Awareness Platform transforms biometric data into actionable intelligence, empowering organizations to verify identities and prevent fraud with speed, accuracy, and confidence. Designed for mission-critical enterprise environments, the platform delivers intelligent, scalable architecture, real-time insights, and reliable security—ensuring precise identification when every millisecond matters. Aware is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. To learn more, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

Safe Harbor Warning

Portions of this release contain forward-looking statements regarding future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties, such as estimates or projections of future revenue, earnings and non-recurring charges, and the growth of the biometrics markets. Aware wishes to caution you that there are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results indicated by such statements.

Risk factors related to our business include, but are not limited to: i) we face intense competition from other biometrics solution providers; ii) our business is subject to rapid technological change; iii) our software products may have errors, defects or bugs which could harm our business; iv) our business may be adversely affected by our use of open source software; v) we rely on third party software to develop and provide our solutions and significant defects in third party software could harm our business; and vi) we may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights.

We refer you to the documents Aware files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the section titled Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 and other reports and filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

This publication is based upon work conducted under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cooperative Research and Development Agreement No. DHS_25-TCBI-004

The views and/or conclusions contained in this document are those of the author(s) and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and do not constitute a DHS endorsement of the equipment tested or evaluated.

This information was determined based on demonstrations and assessments conducted at the Maryland Test Facility as part of the Remote Identity Validation Technology Rally held in 2025 under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.

For more information on these results, please reach out directly to DHS or contact Aware.

CONTACT

Company Contact

Delaney Gembis

Aware, Inc.

781-687-0393

[email protected]