9NOVEMBER 2020It has also been estimated that over 60% of fraud losses from account takeovers involve the call center, and targeted account-takeover attempts by fraudsters are successful 60% of the time.A common element of all these attacks is the attacker's ability to leverage weaknesses in the authentication capabilities of modern telephone systems and to deceptively assume a trusted identity with ease. With the simplicity of caller ID spoofing and the growth of VoIP calling, attackers can spoof any desired caller ID, change their caller ID for every call, and place millions of VoIP calls around the world simultaneously, all while enjoying the protection of being nearly untraceable.As companies dial up the authentication process with tools like Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA), One Time Passwords (OTP), Caller ID identification, or hardware tokens, they dial down customer experience. The additional friction includes longer hold times or, even worse, legitimate customers sometimes can't remember the correct answers to some of the questions we have to ask when authenticating an account.As the friction grows, it adds sparks. Operational costs rise internally when authentication tools fail, the cost-per-call goes up, customers are left unsatisfied, and revenue is lost as organizations desperately seek to protect their customer information.Is this "checkmate" for the hacking community? I believe we must continue to think one step ahead with biometric authentication solutions. Do I know who you are when you call?The only way to know is ensuring we can digitally match a person across multiple channels like cell phones, speakers, and Bluetooth devices using a voiceprint ­ just like a fingerprint.Voice biometric solutions operate by analyzing the unique characteristics of the caller's voice, also known as the caller's voiceprint, as it comes through the telephone channel. Such methods make the authentication decision based on "who you are," resulting in the strongest form of authentication. Biometric solutions have another unique advantage over standard Caller-ID validation based solutions. By leveraging voiceprint analysis, they can be used to detect fraudsters in real-time, even when caller IDs has been spoofed.While there is a range of Voice Biometrics solutions in the market today, the state-of-the-art solutions enable "active authentication." This technology allows us to authenticate a caller over the course of natural conversation without requiring them to remember any PINs or passwords.This eliminates friction in both the enrollment and verification processes, resulting in improved customer satisfaction, higher opt-in rates, and reduced operational costs in a contact center.Unfortunately, most solutions in the market today that offer quality passive voice authentication capabilities have some critical roadblocks. They're limited to complex integrations. Maintenance and enrollment is complex. And they're generally not the best customer experience.These critical challenges have put promising voice biometric technologies out of reach of most small and mid-size financial institutions. The "holy grail" will be the next-gen solution that minimizes implementation costs, is a cloud-based even with an on-premises telephone system, and operate without any customer information leaving the company entrusted with it.Until then, the Ostrich Effect continues to play a role in the war against fraud and account takeovers in the industry. A common element of all these attacks is the attacker's ability to leverage weaknesses in the authentication capabilities of modern telephone systems and to deceptively assume a trusted identity with ease
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