There has been a continuous rise in identity theft throughout the years with cybercriminals coming up with inventive, new ways to circumvent the safeguards that are currently in place. This is why so many industries including insurance, financial services, and banking organizations have embraced the technology for identity verification. At the same time, businesses must also be sure to maintain a positive relationship with customers.
There are a variety of options for identity verification that are available to businesses. These include biometric authentication and verification, knowledge-based authentication, and machine learning solutions. Some businesses use only one of these forms while others use a combination of them.
Biometric Authentication and Verification
Biometric verification involves using physical characteristics to authenticate a person’s identity. This may include voice recognition, retina and iris scanning, facial recognition and fingerprinting techniques. Customers have become used to this sort of verification and have willingly adapted to it since it is a convenient way to prove your own identity and there is no need to remember any passwords or answers to challenge questions.
This, however, is not a foolproof system. Biometrics does come with its own set of flaws. A person can submit their fingerprints using another person’s identity, send in a picture of another person’s face or even use a recording of using another person’s voice to try to pass it off as their own..
Knowledge-Based Authentication
This form of authentication is also known as KBA and it is one of the most popular verification methods used today. It involves asking the customer a question that only he would know the answer to and in some cases a time limit has been set whereby the answer has to be provided. Also known as challenge questions, the person must first provide the answers to the questions, which will be asked at a later date.
There are some challenges with this type of authentication, however, since there is a limited amount of variation in the questions and criminals may be able to find the answers to them by visiting social media websites. As well, knowledge-based authentication does not require any identity issued by the government so anyone who knows the answers to the questions has an open opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
Machine Learning Solutions
This verification process is often used by financial institutions and insurance companies. It can become quite complex to keep track of money laundering, terrorist financial irregularities, creditworthiness, and financial compliance. Businesses of this type must keep on top of all of these issues in order to prevent and fight fraud from occurring. Credit bureaus, for example, need to verify the credit history of their customers to determine their creditworthiness. This process is usually based on API and is very fast. There is a database that is available only to registered institutions.
There are some organizations that believed that checking for creditworthiness is the best way to verify an applicant’s identity but this is simply not true. A criminal can steal someone else’s identity that has good credit in order to make his own credit look acceptable. The process, however, doesn’t verify who the person actually is in any way.
The Best Online Verification Method
The best method to verify a person’s identity applies a combination of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and trusted offline and online sources to authenticate the identity of a person in real-time. The off-line and online sources may include GLBA/DPPA data, social media, IP addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and email information, to name a few. Literally, thousands of these data points can be used to assess the level of risk and these measures can be integrated easily and quickly into business platforms that are currently existing.
Companies and businesses both offline and online are using measures for identity verification to provide better customer experiences and to safeguard their own bottom line. A combination of methods is the best deterrent to criminal attacks by others and more and more businesses are using a variety of different methods for personal verification.