Nowadays, personal data can be within anyone’s reach due to the information we share through social networks and the lack of privacy. In fact, a campaign by Febelfin, the Belgian Federation of the Financial Sector, went viral by showing how easy it is to get personal data, and even accounts or cards, of people just with the information that is shared on the Internet and social networks.
It is because of this ease of access to the data that users themselves make available on the Internet and the lack of security and privacy of many companies that cyber-attacks and fraud are a daily occurrence for many companies, leaving customer data unprotected and within the reach of anyone.
All those companies that collect customer data and work with them must be rigorous in terms of protecting and authenticating this data in an adequate manner.
But we also find that the more traditional methods of identification and authentication, i.e. security questions or passwords, are becoming obsolete due to their unreliability.
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Did you know that…?
- 18.6% of 4-digit PINS are 1234, 1111 or 0000 (Source: Datagenetics).
- 80% of cybersecurity attacks in 2020 were related to passwords (Source: World Economic Forum).
- 52% of users use the same (or very similar and easily hackable) passwords for different services (Source: Panda Security).
- 85% of passwords for online shopping services are reused and 62% for email accounts (Source: Panda Security).
First steps to understand customer identification and authentication
Is there any difference between identification and authentication? The answer is yes!
When we talk about identification, we are referring to the first phase in which an element and a specific person get linked, creating that connection. In other words, it is when the user indicates who he/she is.
On the other hand, when we refer to authentication, we are talking about a subsequent process in which it is verified that the person claims to be who she/he is, that is, his identity is checked. This authentication process is the first step in access control.
There are 3 factors commonly used to authenticate:
- Something you know, i.e. something you know such as a password or PIN.
- Something you have, i.e. something you possess such as a card.
- Something you are, i.e. something that is inherent to you such as your fingerprints or voice biometrics.
Why are these 3 factors used to authenticate customers important?
To comply with regulations such as PSD2, it is necessary to perform a Multifactor Authentication (MFA) which means that at least 2 of the above mentioned factors (necessarily of different categories) must be used to obtain a secure and reliable authentication.
Despite following a Multifactor Authentication, if we only use “Something you know” and “Something you have” factors, there is a great risk since they are more vulnerable factors, and it is much easier to access them.
This is where the third factor “Something you are” i.e. biometrics, comes into play. Biometrics solutions provide the most secure authentication because it is based on unique and inherent elements of each person such as iris pattern, fingerprints, or voiceprint.
Voice Biometric Identification
According to Salesforce, 92% of the interactions we have with the customer occur via telephone. It is, for this reason, that identity verifications through “Something you are” factors such as voiceprint biometrics are perfect, since voice provides behavioral and physiological information, besides being two-dimensional, i.e., it allows identifying what is said and who is saying it.
However, there are 2 different ways to authenticate a customer through voice:
- Actively: the user or customer must read a specific text for identification and verification of his identity.
- Passively: the user only has to speak in a normal conversation to be identified and his identity verified.
But you may wonder what the benefits of Voice Biometrics are,
- It increases safety and significantly reduces risk since we discard the use of passwords or pins and use an element that cannot be lost or stolen.
- Improved customer experience (CX), by reducing the time spent on the phone and offering less friction.
- Lower operations costs, by reducing the number of operators and lower equipment and logistics costs.
- Improved company reputation, by ensuring data privacy and reducing the risk of fraud and identity theft.
And in which sectors it can be used.
- Banking: voice biometrics ensures that the real customer is on the phone and eliminates the risk of identity theft or fraud. It ensures security validation as indicated by PSD2/SCA and avoids SMS or OTP authentication methods that are not very reliable or secure.
- Health and Insurance: Voice biometrics allows to confirm that the policyholder is really the one on the phone and to obtain proof of life or a certificate of life, which reduces fraud and identity theft when making claims and improves the customer experience by not needing to be on-site.
- Call Centers: Reduce AHT and increase NPS by identifying and verifying customers quickly and effectively.
- Telcos: with voice biometrics, it is possible to detect duplicate identities and prevent Sim Swapping, commonly used for identity theft and fraud.
Complete voice biometric identification solutions such as Recordia allow to improve customer experience and reduce fraud and identity theft while reducing AHT and improving NPS in contact centers of many industries.
If you want to learn more about Recordia Voice Biometric Identification, click here.