One of the major challenges facing contact centers, especially as the world goes mobile and access to critical information needs to be available to authorized users from anywhere at any time, is the issue of fraud. Indeed, authentication has in the words of security professionals become the new security perimeter. As a result, and as recent data breaches highlight, keeping fraudsters away, or at least at bay, is a priority. And, not allowing the contact center to be a preferred vector of vulnerability for wreaking havoc has become paramount.
To provide contact centers with enhanced authentication capabilities phone fraud prevention and contact center authentication specialists Atlanta, Ga.-based Pindrop Security, and secure voice biometrics company Madrid, Spain-based AGNITiO, announced a partnership to protect contact centers as they adapt to an increasingly mobile customer base. It will be accomplished through the integration of the AGNITiO KIVOX Passive Detection product into the Pindrop Fraud Detection System 2.0
Authenticating Caller Identity, Location and Type of Device
The AGNITiO product is a highly accurate speech recognition biometric capability used by police, intelligence, military and other government organizations in 38 countries. The AGNITiO KIVOX Passive Detection product family is targeted at the corporate sector, specifically financial services, telecommunications, utilities and other sectors that are big targets for the bad guys.
Pindrop Fraud Detection System 2.0 is based on the privately-held company’s Pindrop Phoneprinting technology which can identify phone devices uniquely just from a call’s audio. It also can confirm the location and device type being used. This means contact centers can detect fraudulent calls as well as authenticate legitimate callers.
The combination of the two company’s technologies is positioned as offering a complete end-to-end solution that meets the ease of use and privacy needs of customers and security demands of enterprises.
"With fraudsters moving to the phone channel to gain access to financial accounts, call centers have become the first line of defense for financial institutions," said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder and CEO of Pindrop Security. "By integrating Pindrop's Phoneprinting technology with the AGNITiO voice biometrics offering, financial institutions and call centers can be assured that choosing our joint solution will provide them with the best phone fraud mitigation technology on the market today."
Emilio Martinez, CEO of AGNITiO, added, "Contact centers need to verify the caller quickly and easily in a way that is transparent to the consumer. Our collaboration with Pindrop has allowed us to provide to enterprise customers the same best-in-class voice biometrics engine that satisfies the strict requirements of global government defense and law enforcement agencies. Together, we represent a unique combination of tested and proven innovation, technology and competence that no one in the market can match."
Obviously, detecting fraud and mitigating its risk, now more than ever has become a top, if not the top, IT function. Given that contact centers are the front door of organizations and the front line for customer interactions, authenticating to the best extent possible who is calling is non-trivial, and using voice as a tool to validate/authenticate the voice of the customer is an approach worth evaluating.