• James Stickland, CEO at Veridium


• 03.02.2020 11:15 am
#Biometrics

According to UK Finance, over two-thirds of British adults now use online banking, and 48% use mobile banking. This means financial institutions are under pressure to implement the latest identity verification technologies to protect the abundance of sensitive data, whilst delivering a seamless user experience.

Current authentication methods are showing cracks 

Fraud continues to pose a major threat to the UK banking sector. In 2019, one in five UK adults were impacted by card fraud, calling for financial services institutions to seriously revaluate current verification procedures. In a bid to ensure banks know their customers are who they say they are, banks need to migrate from authentication techniques that require ‘what you know’, such as easily compromised passwords, to ‘who you are’ i.e. biometric authentication using fingerprint or facial recognition. Furthermore, biometrics used in conjunction with liveness detection which identifies movement, combined with factors such as time of day or geolocation, proves the identification of the authorised person in real-time. 

Mobile-first security and the user experience

Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70 per cent of organisations will be implementing biometric authentication for employees through smartphone apps. This represents a huge jump from just five per cent in 2018, and demonstrates the potential for mobile based biometrics to optimise employee security whilst enhancing user experience. A streamlined authentication experience will mean employees have more time to focus on key business objectives instead of resetting passwords, increasing productivity across all departments.

Mobile-first authentication strategies for consumers will also take precedence this coming decade, considering biometric facial recognition hardware will be present in 90 per cent of smartphones by 2024. Enterprises integrating a mobile Multi Factor Authentication strategy will see both increased security and a more seamless user experience for the consumer. This is vital as the customer experience is now the deciding factor in long-term popularity and success. 

Call for more unique methods

According to a recent Private Industry Notification from the FBI, increasingly sophisticated cyber threats used to deceive Multi Factor Authentication means the need for innovative behavioural biometrics is more urgent than ever.

This issue has been amplified by advanced cyber-attacks such as artificial intelligence powered ‘deepfakes,’ which accurately emulate a customer’s characteristics, such as voice, to deceive the system. These identity fraud scams are anticipated to cost businesses a staggering $250 million this year. In order to return control to the consumer without sacrificing the seamless user experience, financial institutions would see value in implementing innovative behavioural biometric authentication. This cutting-edge technology uses motion sensors and artificial intelligence to identify unique mannerisms such as the way a phone is held, or patterns of behaviour such as the time of day an app is accessed. It is widely being regarded as the final frontier in security, and presents a solution to such advanced threats.

Not only does the integration of unique behavioural recognition add an additional layer of security, it also makes for a more immersive customer experience, giving banks a competitive edge. To keep pace with today’s challenger banks born on the cloud, companies must embrace the changing needs of today’s mobile-first consumer and invest in the next-generation of authentication technology leveraging digital devices. This is a major step towards creating a more secure, passwordless society, while developing confidence and trust in what is often seen as an opaque industry.