Behavioral biometrics authentication: repairing the digital infrastructure
Along with the advent of the internet and mobile devices has come the construction of a vast global digital infrastructure. This infrastructure has made us more connected, productive, and agile than we have ever been. We now have the ability to pay bills, schedule medical appointments, go shopping, and bank – all at our fingertips. Operating within this infrastructure, however, requires sharing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as credit card and bank account numbers and dates of birth. We willingly surrender our personal information in the name of convenience – even though frequent hacks and data breaches prove many companies do not invest deeply enough in security
The security measures that protect PII are often inadequate and expose consumers to a staggering number of ever-evolving threats every day. Retailers, e-commerce giants, and even financial institutions are frequently in the news for suffering hacks and data breaches. These weaknesses enable fraudsters to steal PII for use in all manner of criminal acts – and financial institutions are a primary target. In the current environment, it is critical that digital identity verification move beyond the use of PII and two-factor authentication and toward forms of identification that cannot be stolen, copied, or lost.
Investing in new and improved security strategies will show returns for targeted organizations, like financial institutions, and the global digital infrastructure. These returns will be in more areas than just minimizing the cost of data breaches and reducing the number of expensive false alarms, they also will improve the user experience. Enhanced security will help rebuild consumer trust and repair perceptions that are damaged every time another breach occurs or another customer is swindled.
Lack of effective PII security has taken a toll on consumer trust
In 2016 alone, more than 1 billion records were stolen in data breaches.1 Today, more than 5 million records are lost or stolen daily.2 For organizations that don’t invest in advanced and innovative security solutions, the question is no longer “if” they have been breached – it’s “how” or “when.” And, with stolen PII, financial fraud soon follows.
This scale of PII exposure creates problems not only for consumers’ financial dealings – it has ramifications in other areas of their lives. Information such as names, Social Security numbers, and addresses are the same information individuals use when they apply for jobs, pay taxes, and receive healthcare. The issue has become so rampant that regulatory bodies across the globe have started enacting laws to modernize and strengthen protections for customers’ data.
Traditional security approaches are ineffective and costly
Traditional means of security are unable to keep pace with the increasingly sophisticated avenues of attack introduced by fraudsters every day. Even with two-factor authentication, innovative hackers continue to gain access to user accounts, utilizing social engineering schemes or spoofed “man-in-the-middle” login websites. Traditional security approaches are not only ineffective, they are expensive and cause enormous downstream operational costs from handling false positives and authentication failures.
Organizations leveraging traditional malware detection systems reported that 40% of investigated malware alerts turn out to be false positives.3 Chasing these erroneous leads requires time and manpower, neither of which is cheap. Authentication failures also place a strain on operations. Authentication mechanisms underpin many fraud prevention efforts, but when users fail their authentication test for one reason or another, they are often contacted by a call center for assistance. Each of these calls to customers costs an average of four dollars – whether the user answers their phone or not – so it’s easy to see why the costs add up quickly for even a big financial institution.4
The effects of data breaches are far-reaching, so the onus is on all of us to do what we can to prevent data breaches and minimize the impact of stolen PII – but financial institutions are among those with the most to lose. When fraudsters succeed, financial institutions suffer significant reputational damage and legal risk from customers on top of the intense operational burden they already bear. To avoid these harsh realities, minimize the risks of PII exposure, and regain the confidence of consumers, they must revisit their approaches to security and use information that can never be lost, stolen, or copied.
Behavioral biometrics is the key to repairing our digital infrastructure
Digital innovation opens new possibilities and offers new solutions to the challenge of securing our global digital infrastructure. A significant advance is the use of behavioral biometric authentication and security protocols. Behavioral biometrics creates profiles based on users’ unique ways of interacting with their devices, such as how they scroll, type, and navigate web pages and mobile applications. These solutions run in the background of online user sessions and require no personal information, providing a frictionless and more secure approach to protecting consumers.
Adding behavioral biometrics to the security arsenal not only enables financial institutions to better protect their customers and reduce fraud, it also drastically cuts costs and enhances operational efficiency. Applying continuous authentication processes reduces fraud and friction throughout the customer experience, which helps minimize the risk of losing clientele. Behavioral biometric authentication also reduces the number of false positives that are surfaced by traditional fraud prevention systems, enabling a higher degree of operational efficiency and huge cost savings.
BioCatch is poised to transform your business today
BioCatch is a pioneer in the field of behavioral biometrics and enables institutions to take a new approach to protecting the digital identity of consumers. The BioCatch solution, built on Microsoft Cloud technology, is an advanced behavioral biometrics platform that recognizes a wide range of human and non-human cybersecurity threats. With BioCatch, institutions can leverage an unparalleled portfolio of more than 50 patents and 2,000 identity proofing parameters to drive accuracy and resilience in securing online sessions. The solution brings the added benefit of the insight and scale that comes from monitoring over 5 billion transactions every month, enabling institutions to can minimize the financial impact fraud has on their business.
If you’re ready to invest in an approach that will pay dividends in terms of consumer trust, reduced fraud, and enhanced identity proofing infrastructure, visit Microsoft AppSource and try the BioCatch demo today.
1 Ponemon Institute, 2016
2 BioCatch, 2017
3 Breach Level Index, 2017
4 Breach Level Index, 2017
