As digital threats continue to evolve and as fraudsters get savvier, the need for secure and convenient authentication methods grows increasingly important. To find out how re-authentication can help keep firms and their customers safe, three experts joined The Fintech Times to share their insights.
During an insightful live webinar, we explored the various methods of re-authentication and how they can be leveraged as powerful tools in fraud prevention.
Biometrics is emerging as a front-runner in re-authentication, offering unparalleled security and ease of use. However, misconceptions about biometric security have led to hesitation among some companies and consumers in adopting this technology.
Tackling many of these misconceptions and ‘myths’ were:
Blair Cohen, founder of AuthenticID, an AI-driven identity verification and fraud prevention company
Sarah Clark, founder of Lens Identity consultancy and formerly SVP of digital identity at Mastercard
Simon Marchand, an independent fraud consultant and fraud risk, identity and biometrics expert
Watch the full webinar
Embracing biometric authentication
To begin the webinar, our panellists discussed the value of biometric re-authentication to mitigate attacks by fraudsters. Despite banks and financial institutions across the globe recognising the importance of improving their defences, many still offer opportunities to fraudsters through lacking authentication processes.
Marchand said: “Using my bank as an example, when you log in, the two-factor authentication it suggests is a push notification – which is better than an SMS. That said, you have the ability to say you don’t have access to the phone so please send an SMS instead. This basically gives fraudsters an out. If you don’t have access to the device or you haven’t been able to infect it, just do a quick SIM swap to intercept the SMS.
“Giving that opportunity because you want to reduce friction for customers really opens the door for fraudsters. However, if that biometric print was stored server-side, I could use any kind of divide and still use my face as the strongest possible authentication factor.”
Tackling teething problems
“I think there has been a lot of work done within financial services, as well as numerous other verticals, when it comes to onboarding,” Clark explained. “But what’s been left is a gulf between onboarding and ongoing authentication. That needs to be resolved.
“The best possible solution is to utilise an onboarding flow that collects a selfie. At the end of the day, if you’re seeing risk in your business from fraud, it is important to know definitively that it is a real person on the other end of that transaction.
“Ultimately, you need to know that you’re onboarding a real individual. Being able to bring that forward into ongoing authentication by using that selfie as your blueprint for who you will recognise going forward for authentication use cases is critical.”
While the benefits of biometric re-authentication are clear, the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to pose significant challenges.
Cohen broke down the severity of these threats: “Start preparing now. AuthenticID puts out our ‘State of Identity‘ fraud report twice a year. Our latest half-year report highlights a 1400 per cent increase in generative AI attacks. Don’t be in a catch-up mode: your people cannot detect this threat; it’s going to take well-implemented and well-thought-out technology to prevent this from happening to your enterprise and your customers.”
For more insights and information, you can watch the full webinar here
The post Combat Fraud Smarter: A Fresh Take on Re-Authentication appeared first on The Fintech Times.
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