The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) wants to reintroduce its controversial facial recognition tool to combat SRD (social relief and distress) fraud.
SASSA will reintroduce facial recognition: Here’s what you must know
Speaking to the media, spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi underscored recent discoveries made by two first-year computer science students at Stellenbosch University in October as the chief motivation behind the agency’s decision to forge ahead with a biometric system that was wholly rejected before.
In its current state, SASSA’s system is prone to several shocking vulnerabilities.
“People can simply create an ID number, make an application or they can do what we call identity theft. They can steal your ID number because I know your ID [number] I can steal it, go make an application on your behalf, and when you come forward to check you’d find that you are getting R350 without your knowledge,” Letsatsi explained.
The SRD grant is a temporary financial assistance program introduced by the South African government. Administered by SASSA, the grant provides R350 per month to qualifying individuals who are unemployed and not receiving other forms of government assistance such as UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) payments or social grants.
In October, two first-year computer science students at Stellenbosch University, Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai, tasked with looking for vulnerabilities in government as well as private-sector systems using publicly available internet resources stumbled on a trove of illegal activity in SASSA’s security infrastructure.
The students ran a query on the agency’s portal: 300,000 ID searches at a rate of 700 per minute. Not only was this the first security lapse but it exposed a deeper, more sinister scam at play.
“We found that 74,931 SRD grant applications were made for people born in February 2005. According to Statistics South Africa (as of 2020) there were 82,097 births in February 2005. This would mean that the application rate is roughly 91%. It is extremely unlikely that so many applications were made by people born in this month,” the students explained.
More shocking, Cedras and Gosai found their ID numbers listed as active beneficiaries “even though we have never received the SRD grant.”
The students’ findings were thoroughly investigated by SASSA, and according to Letsatsi, one of the first implementation steps will be reintroducing facial scans, alongside other stringent biometrics.
The social security agency had piloted the Face ID program in the past but faced serious push-back from civil society.
However, in light of the investigation’s findings, as well as the advent of technology, SASSA is left with no choice but to lean into advanced security systems to safeguard people’s identities and the disbursement of public funds.
“We are left with no option but to implement the system because the more we don’t implement it, the more we would have to explain why people are committing theft. We are appealing to the civil society to understand that we are defending or protecting the money which belongs to the public, hence we have to implement the facial recognition system,” Letsatsi said.
While no definitive rollout date has been confirmed, SASSA made it clear that public engagements will be held before anything is implemented.
