VoiceVerified: Nilson Report #851
Voice Biometrics For Multifactor Authentication Technology developed to streamline customer interaction at call centers has been adapted so it can process voice samples as a second factor of customer authentication. VoiceVerified’s Point Service Provider (PSP) meets all regulatory requirements for Visa’s Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) and for TrustKeeper Certification (PCI, SOX, GLBA, SAS70) from Ambiron Trustwave, but requires virtually no new hardware or software. Instead, all voice samplings and comparisons are done at multiple redundant processing centers operated by VoiceVerified. PSP makes the comparisons by applying an algorithm. Although the voiceprint files are maintained by VoiceVerified, there is no personal information linking them to individual customers.
A pilot test scheduled for March will involve a regional financial institution issuing a few hundred VoiceVerified-branded prepaid cards able to make purchases from two online merchants. Purchases will trigger phone calls to buyers so transactions can be verified through comparison voiceprints. By March 31, VoiceVerified expects to roll out PSP with the ability to handle a large volume of calls simultaneously.
How Voice Verification Works: The original voice sample is collected when customers open a new account with a credit card company, bank, or brokerage firm. The comparison sample can be taken routinely whenever a customer contacts a financial services call center or Web site, or makes a transaction with an online merchant. Samples might only be triggered whenever online or call-center activity looks suspect. Successful identity theft often involves duping call centers into altering account data such as a billing address. Because getting the voice comparison from a Web customer requires contacting them by telephone, the method simultaneously accomplishes out-of-band authentication. When the technology is used at a call center, it verifies identity without asking customers to divulge personal information to a stranger, a process that can take about 30 seconds. With VoiceVerified, customers instead spend a few seconds repeating a random string of five digits to an automated system.
VoiceVerified will charge two types of fees for its service. An annual identitymanagement fee will include enrollment. Per-transaction fees will be based on the value of the transactions. VoiceVerified’s management team includes John Lazzaro, former head of fraud at Citibank, where he developed the procedure of affixing stickers to newly issued payment cards so customers had to call for activation. Wayne Cluff is President at VoiceVerified Inc. in New Hope, Pennsylvania, (215) 862-7812
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