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Latest News
DocuSign Adds Authentify Voice Authentication for Digital Signatures
By Derek Top | July 14, 2010
The true business benefits in electronic signatures are expediting the process in how contracts, agreements, and documents are signed and completed, solidifying each party's consent. DocuSign, providers of digital signature solutions, have built an on-demand service to "empower" businesses large and small to operate faster and more efficiently.
Recently, DocuSign announced a partnership to integrate Authentify's out-of-band voice authentication into the company's electronic document signature service. According to the announcement, the authentication option strengthens the signature process by creating a biometric voiceprint and automating a defensible audit trail.
"It's a very natural extension of our electronic signature process," said Tom Gonser, DocuSign founder and chief strategy officer in a statement. "The synchronization of the Web and telephony process requires users to interact simultaneously during the signing engagement."
The authentication option is available now with the DocuSign Spring '10 release.
West Corporation Selects Anakam for Home Agent Authentication
By Derek Top | July 6, 2010
The growing market for home-based virtual agents gives contact center service providers flexibilities in staffing - for instance, to shoulder seasonal call spikes - while still maintaining high levels of customer service with an educated and motivated workforce. But one concern with such a highly distributed at-home agent solution is to make sure the person checking in for work is the actual person contracted with the service provider.
To ensure higher levels of security, West Corporation has purchased Anakam's comprehensive suite of products, including voice biometrics, to provide authentication mechanisms in verifying the identity of home-based agents. West at Home, with more than 15,000 virtual agents, plans to use the "Anakam Identity Suite" to provide strong authentication of virtual private networks (VPN) between home-based agents and their platform. The product suite enhances West at Home's current two-factor authentication by offering customers the ability to deliver a one-time passcode via phone, email or voice biometrics.
The partnership with Anakam - whose roster of customers include government and healthcare organizations utilizing identity proofing and verification technologies - underscores West Corporation's commitment to provide secure, multi-channel communications. While the announced partnership focuses on the authentication process of internal West at Home agents, the company says the deployment will expand over time to include customer and client-facing solutions.
Voice Commerce Launches Cloud-Based Biometrics Service
June 17, 2010
Nick Ogden and Voice Commerce are accelerating the marketing efforts for On4, an e-commerce platform utilizing voice biometrics for payment authentication. From an article published by InfoSecurity Magazine in the U.K.:
Known as On4, the cloud-based service allows retailers to instantly set up and run their online business, processing transactions using voice biometrics to authenticate/authorise their online and mobile-based electronic payments.
According to Voice Commerce, a step-by-step process allows retailers to quickly set up and build a fully functioning store that will process Level 1 PCI compliant payments through Voice Commerce's voice transact payment network. As well as accepting Visa, MasterCard and American Express payments, the firm claims that retailers can also automatically deploy the VoicePay biometric payment system to process secure mobile payments.
Truveo Uses Speaker Identification to Help Users Find Their Favorite Celebrities on Video
By Dan Miller | June 10, 2010
After a year of relative quiet, the video search destination site Truveo is launching a new service that uses speaker identification technologies to help its users find their favorite celebrities on camera. Facebook members can access the app here; where you'll see how the combination of a voice biometrics, video search and social networking creates the ultimate resource for a person who wants to home in on videos that should interest them - either because they feature their favorite stars, politicians or personalities, or because their "friends" have recently viewed them, as well as the ability to have Facebook notify a user when it has discovered a relevant video clip.
You can watch a five minute video demonstration of the service here.
Truveo was acquired by AOL back in 2006 and had a major "relaunch" in April of 2009, as discussed by Opus Research's Greg Sterling in this article in Search Engine Land. It has been locked in competition with the likes of Blinkx, Google Video and to some extent YouTube while, at the same time, it has powered the video search capabilities of several other branded Web sites. Bringing the precision of speaker identification into the video search and discovery realm is a nice touch that should result in a better user experience as video expands into social networking and mobile realms.
Authentication Architectures for Smartphones
By Derek Top | June 9, 2010
I wanted to alert readers to an interesting discussion on the design and architecture considerations for voice authentication on smartphones in a LinkedIn community group focused on voice biometrics. Valene Skerpac, president of iBiometrics, has outlined several questions about the technology for smartphones including: Where should voice verification signal processing - matching - decision processing be performed? And should all the voice verification processing be performed centrally like all other telephony voice verification?
Given the explosive growth in smartphone adoption and related uptake in mobile banking, developing and defining the authentication architecture that will prevail on handsets is a process yet to be determined. Join the discussion on LinkedIn here.
Go-to-Market Strategies for Voice Biometrics
By Derek Top | May 13, 2010
[Opus Research has released its latest report and forecast of voice biometric technologies and solutions: "Voice Biometrics 2010: A Transformative Year for Voice-Based Authentication." Below is a brief excerpt that addresses the role of voice biometric technologies in multi-factor authentication, mobile settings, and anonymous authentication for social media networks.]
At Opus Research's Voice Biometrics Conference 2010, Brent Williams, CTO of multifactor authentication specialist Anakam, observed that voice biometrics solutions providers had, perhaps, done themselves a disservice by concentrating so heavily on financial services. When the worldwide financial chill hit all banks, voice-based authentication projects were the unintentional victims.
By contrast, Williams noted, his company remains very bullish on the potential for voice authentication to play an important role in supporting multifactor authentication requirements for truly large scale deployments, where people have to have great confidence in remote authentication. Anakam has several opportunities in mind in areas where his company has had success: authenticating "extremely large scale user-bases for consumer, patient, and citizen-facing applications in e-health, e-government, e-banking, and e-commerce."
Connecting the Dots
For core technology providers, success is predicated on working with partners in risk-based authentication, like Anakam (which offers a complete solution of its own), as well as vertical specialists in areas like credit reporting, like Experian, TransUnion, Equifax or Acxiom. This means that success for the technology will depend largely on how well voice biometric specialists can work with, interface to and internetwork across multiple service providers.
For each of them, Voice Biometrics has the potential to be a tremendous differentiator. As noted earlier in this paper, it can serve as the "something you are," but it can also provide the sort of "liveness testing" that is becoming tremendously important in both fraud prevention and promotion of ecommerce. The failure of solutions providers to reach high visibility and critical mass is largely a problem of marketing, not technology. To its credit, the core biometric engines and application logic is on a par with alternative techniques for keeping imposters at bay and, as we frequently point out, voice biometrics is largely superior of authenticating users (as opposed to their devices) and detecting real-time speaker changes.
"Strong authentication" will be required to give the general public the confidence to carry out everyday activities online or over their wireless devices in a way that protects their privacy and prevents identity theft. In a mobile setting (as well as instances that can be supported by "out-of-band" or outbound, phone-based authentication) voice-based verification should be positioned as the only way that a person (or enterprise) can be assured that the person on the other side of a transaction is alive, well and, indeed, the person he or she claims to be.
Finally, while it may appear counter-intuitive, voice biometrics -- which we have argued to be the "most personal of authentication technologies" -- will find its greatest value as a supporter of "anonymous authentication." In well-designed implementations, voiceprints are not associated directly with personal information of any sort. They are merely part of a mechanism that provides confidence that callers or customers are, indeed, who they claim to be. As the follies of Facebook and other social networks raise attention about privacy protection in cyberspace, the availability of this highly portable and personal, yet anonymous, authentication technique will rise in importance.
Early Adopters and Fast Followers: What's Next for Voice Biometrics
By Derek Top | April 22, 2010
As a third-party analyst firm, we at Opus Research have chronicled the many business benefits of speaker verification and voice biometrics: reduced operational costs and agent handling; customer convenience; reduced fraud loss; accurate, remote mobile authentication; internal IT help desk savings; low barriers to entry with little upfront capital expenditures; etc.
Yet despite these real and perceived business advantages, one of the mystifying aspects of the voice biometrics "industry" is the lack of large, public-facing deployments. In this video, Chuck Buffum, VP of Authentication Solutions for Nuance Communications, speaks to the slow trend of adoption and talks about finding early adopters of voice biometrics for customer care.
Of course, this topic and many others - including case studies from Bell Canada, T-Mobile, Bank Leumi, I DRIVE SAFELY, Atos Origin, the federal government of Mexico, and more - will be showcased at the upcoming Voice Biometrics Conference 2010 (May 4-5, Hyatt Regency Jersey City).
Talking Voice Biometrics Conference 2010
By Derek Top | April 19, 2010
Last week, Dan York (Director of Conversations with Voxeo) interviewed Dan Miller (Senior Analyst, Opus Research) about the upcoming Voice Biometrics Conference on May 4-5 at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City. They spoke about the history of the conference, the kinds of presentations that will be at the event and what attendees will learn.
Webcast: Meeting New Demands for User Authentication
By Derek Top
Web-based search, commerce, and entertainment -- coupled with the human urge to "go mobile"-- is making our activity more virtual. In this always-on world, unwanted access to personal data stores is leaving transaction streams vulnerable to fraud. Join Opus Research and TradeHarbor for a discussion of how the two pillars of "something you know" (a PIN or Password) and "something you have" (a physical token, PC, or cellphone) can be easily augmented with unique aspects of "something you are," in this case your voiceprint.
Speakers:
- Dan Miller - Senior Analyst, Opus Research
- Paul Heirendt - President & CEO, TradeHarbor
PerSay's Alliance with Huawei to "Pre-Integrate" Voice Authentication into IP-Contact Centers
By Dan Miller | April 7, 2010
This news out of Bangalore, India shows that voice authentication technology provider PerSay has formed an alliance with IP-based communications giant Huawei to "pre-integrate" voice biometric solutions into its IP-Contact Center offering. It is a major coup for both companies, giving Huawei a significant source of differentiation against rival lPCC platform providers (like Avaya, Cisco and Genesys) and PerSay, "most-favored" status among voice biometric authentication solutions providers to a single company (Huawei) that is gaining market share in the fastest growing geographic segment of the contact center industry.
In its latest "Magic Quadrant" report, Gartner rated Huawei as a modest "niche player," which is a quadrant it shares with Mitel, Altitude Software, Aastra Technologies and CosmoCom. This categorization is mostly due to its limited geographic wingspan and the fact that Huawei is regarded primarily "Big Iron" type company focusing on large, public carrier-based installations, especially those in China and South Africa.
Huawei sees it differently. According to company literature, its customer care contact centers already serve "one-fifth of the world's population." Its IPCC supports multi-channel and multi-media interactions is already "widely used" to support several vertical industries that will benefit from streamlined implementation of strong user authentication, specifically government, telecommunications and banking. In many cases, its infrastructure supports 10,000 seat installations, which means that PerSay could greatly expand its enrolled user base simply by integrating voice authentication into the agent log-in procedures.
The deal is not exclusive and PerSay continues to offer a solutions that "works with any contact center platform" by integrating with interactive voice response and CTI-based links. Still, the alliance enables Huawei to respond to market demands for "secure and convenient" authentication of inbound callers with a pre-packaged solution.
USAN Partners with TradeHarbor For Voice Authentication
By Derek Top | March 23, 2010
USAN, a provider of call center solutions, announced plans to include TradeHarbor's Voice Signature Service as part of its IVR customer offerings. The Voice Signature Service is delivered in a "software-as-a-service" model and can be used to authenticate customers across a variety of modalities.
Acccording to the announcement, Bob Nelson, Vice President of Partner Development at TradeHarbor, said "not only will voice authentication work for customers on inbound calls, but USAN's clients will also benefit from Voice Signatures in online authentication for transactions made from computers and mobile devices based on outbound calls to their wired or mobile phones."
The Buzz Starts Now: Voice Biometrics Conference (May 4-5)
March 17, 2010
The ever-growing roster of speakers for Voice Biometrics Conference (May 4-5, 2010) is already impressive. Experts from around the world in multifactor authentication, mobile applications, data security, and cloud-based customer care will be sharing experiences and insight.
In anticipation of the event, we invite you to join the LinkedIn group: "Voice Biometrics Conference Buzz." We encourage members to share experiences, questions and observations surrounding the use of voice biometric technologies for speaker identification and verification across a variety of point applications - including password reset, access control, voice signatures, payment authorizations, customer care, law enforcement, and more.
And be sure to join your peers in healthcare, banking, financial services, insurance, telecom and various government agencies for Voice Biometrics Conference (May 4-5) - the only global event designed specifically to answer the burning questions surrounding implementation and adoption of authentication and identification applications that employ voice biometrics.
When making room reservations at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, be sure to mention the Group # "G-Opus" to receive a special room rate of $189. (The VBC group rate will apply until April 23, 2010 and is subject to availability.)
G4S Justice Services Taps PerSay for Electronic Monitoring
By Derek Top | March 15, 2010
Electronic monitoring is a small but growing market for voice-based authentication solutions. G4S Justice Services has selected PerSay to add voice biometrics with traditional ankle bracelet-based solutions for monitoring offenders under home arrest or other court ordered supervision program.
According to the announcement, the companies believe "voice biometrics is cost effective and convenient to both the agency as well as to the party being monitored." G4S Justice Services says they followed a thorough process to select PerSay's Vocal Password platform and will introduce in electronic monitoring projects around the world.
Research Claims to Improve Voice Authentication Methods
By Derek Top | March 9, 2010
New research shows promise in shortening the time it takes to authenticate users via text-independent speaker verification applications. Dr. Robert Rodman, a professor of computer science at North Carolina State University, claims to have established a new computer model for authentication that significantly outperforms current models. Such advances, says Rodman, will help voice biometrics enter commercial markets.
"The latency period between utterance and (non) authentication is critical in gaining public acceptance of the technology," said Rodman. "Even a gain of one second on average may be significant given the general impatience and high expectations of users of commercial systems."
Introducing an alternative Gaussian selection method known as sorted GMM (SGMM), Dr. Rodman and his team were able to streamline authentication processes. "This is part of the evolution of speech authentication software," said Rodman in a press release, "and it moves us closer to making this technology a practical, secure tool."
The research, "Joint Frame and Gaussian Selection for Text Independent Speaker Verification," is being presented at the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) in Dallas, March 14-19.
Talking Voice Biometrics with Voxeo
By Derek Top | February 9, 2010
In a series of video interviews, Voxeo's Dan York chats with some of the leading providers of voice biometrics technology. York includes conversations with Bill Morrow, Chairman and CEO of CSIdentity; Peter Soufleris, Founder and CEO of Vocalect; Ariel Freidenberg, Executive VP of Sales and Business Development forPerSay; and Paul Heirendt, Co-founder, President and CEO of TradeHarbor. Each interview delves into the current trends for voice biometrics, barriers to adoption, and what makes each of these providers' services unique.
To view the interviews, go to Voxeo's Emerging Tech Talk podcast.
The podcast series coincides with announced partnerships from Voxeo with CSIdentity, PerSay, TradeHarbor and Vocalect in adding voice authentication applications for customers on Voxeo's network. The companies have set up a trial process through Voxeo's Prophecy platforms.
PhoneFactor Debuts Biometric Authentication
By Derek Top | January 22, 2010
PhoneFactor Inc., a provider of two-factor authentication solutions, has bolstered their authentication offerings by adding a biometric verification. With a rising number of sophisticated attacks and social engineering tactics, the phone-based voice biometric method solidifies the company's product offering in establishing a third-factor of verification: "something you are."
Based in Overland Park, Kansas, PhoneFactor sells tokenless, telephone-based solutions and provides an out-of-band authentication method to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
Targeting highly secure systems, Steve Dispensa, chief technology officer of PhoneFactor, said the "voice authentication service makes this easier and more cost effective than ever - putting greater security within reach of enterprises, banking and financial services organizations, and government agencies," in a company announcement.
Investcorp Purchases Equity Stake in CSIdentity
By Derek Top | January 15, 2010
CSIdentity, an Austin, Texas-based provider of identity theft and fraud protection solutions, has raised $35 million in private equity funding from Investcorp Technology Partners. The company offers a suite of security solutions including a voice biometric identity and verification technology.
In the announcement, CSIdentity projects a $2.8 billion identity theft protection market in the U.S. that is expected to grow over 20% per year indefinitely.
"Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the world, having claimed more than 10 million victims in the U.S. alone in 2008," said Alex Guira, co-head of Investcorp's technology investment business, who will join the CSIdentity board along with London-based Investcorp colleague Dirk Schmucking. "With its technology leadership, blue-chip client base and superb management, CSIdentity is well positioned to combat this growing pandemic, not just in the U.S. but in Europe and the Middle East as well.
CSIdentity entered the voice biometrics market in 2009 after acquiring assets from the now-defunct VoiceVerified, a Pennsylvania-based provider of voice authentication solutions.
Sandata Taps PerSay For Home Healthcare Services
By Derek Top | December 8, 2009
At-home healthcare services appear to be a perfect fit for voice biometrics and remote authentication. According to the American Association of Homecare some eight million Americans currently require some type of medical care in the home. But while at-home healthcare services provide a cost-effective alternative to institutional care, fraud remains a growing concern in terms of verifying services have been provided.
In an effort to prevent such fraud, Sandata Technologies, a technology provider of home healthcare solutions, has partnered with PerSay adding voice biometrics to enhance its current suite of time-and-attendance product capabilities. According to the announcement, the addition of PerSay's VocalPassword to Sandata's product suite, "enables Santrax customers to validate the identity of field employees using a precise biometric based multi-factor authentication process, whether they utilize a landline or mobile telephone."
Sandata reports that customers are expressing interest in voice verification technology providing "a simple, accurate and effective way to ensure that our home health aides are at work," said Marki Flannery, with President of Partners in Care based in New York City.
National Australia Bank Plans Voice Verification for Mobile Banking
By Derek Top | November 30, 2009
After launching a voice verification service for its 3.3 million personal banking customers last June, National Australia Bank (NAB) is considering extending voice biometric technology to online and mobile banking customer authentication.
According to an article in CIO magazine Australia, NAB sees an opportunity for enhanced authentication security services in mobile banking:
The bank currently uses SMS passcodes to authenticate online customers but is looking to find a more secure and convenient system. Text message passwords that are sent to the same device that is used to bank online, present a security risk if the phone is stolen. In addition, the process of entering a code on the phone, toggling between screens, is unwieldy.
Using the biometric system, customers who initiate a transaction would be called by the bank to verify their voiceprint and complete the process.
Tim Cullen, head of direct channels, told the magazine, pending project approval, the system could be introduced in the next 12 months.
Webcast: "Voice Biometrics: Increased Sevice, Increased Security"
By Derek Top
Since 2007, Australia private health insurer ahm (Australian Health Management) has successfully managed one of the largest public-facing deployments of speaker verification. With more than 400,000 yearly calls into its main contact center, ahm has implemented an automated voice verification system to provide quick, accurate authentication of callers enhancing member security and improving the customer experience.
In this free webcast, ahm will discuss the project planning involved for voice biometric deployments including lessons learned and what the company would have done differently, enrollment strategies, challenges, benefits, and ROI savings.
Speakers:
- Dan Miller - Senior Analyst, Opus Research
- Rob Thomas - Manager Operations Business Systems, Australian Health Management (ahm)
- Martyn Riddle - GM Marketing, Customer Contact Solutions, Salmat
To receive a copy of the slide presentation from the webcast, please email Derek Top, Director of Research, Opus Research.
VoiceCash Making Presence Known in EMEA
By Derek Top | October 29, 2009
VoiceCash, an enabler of mobile payment solutions, has made some noise this week with a couple of press releases formally launching its prepaid MasterCard twin card for the German market and announcing a new office and regional CEO in Dubai.
Based in Germany, VoiceCash is targeting consumers interested in cross-border money transfers offering pre-paid payment cards that can be managed online or via SMS communications. The transfers can be authenticated utilizing voice verification technology supplied by VoiceTrust.
Michael Kramer, CEO for both entities, is optimistic about the future of mobile payment services, "VoiceCash Mobile Money Services help mobile operators and banks to achieve a leading position in the rapidly growing multi-billion EUR mobile payment and remittance market," says Kramer on the company website.
VoiceCash appears to be trying to compete head-to-head with VoicePay, a payment processor utilizing voice signature technologies for mobile payment services owned and operated by Voice Commerce Ltd.
The VoiceCash announcements were released in conjunction with this week's Mobile Money Transfer Global Summit in Dubai.
Persay Announces Partnership with Prosodie
By Derek Top | October 23, 2009
Prosodie, a French-based multi-channel online service provider, is adding Persay's voice biometrics technology to enhance its IVR and speech-enabled services offered to contact centers. Prosodie serves several vertical markets, including financial services, and hopes to extend the reach of voice biometrics technology.
According to the press release:
"Voice authentication is much more than just a technology," said Francois Chaffard, Prosodie's Strategic Marketing Manager. "When fully integrated in a voice application, it offers a wide range of possibilities to increase the customer satisfaction. We will be using PerSay's Voice Biometrics technology to enhance security by providing strong, multi-factor authentication, in our voice services as well as to smooth customer identification process by enabling our customers to use simple passwords instead of cumbersome and easily forgettable PINs. We see significant potential for voice-based authentication in the banking and money transfer services arenas".
Prosodie will use PerSay's VocalPassword and FreeSpeech platforms. No customers were named in the partnership announcement.
Webcast: "Voice Biometrics Update - Authentication at the Inflection Point"
By Derek Top | September 30, 2009
Opus Research and Nuance Communications provide insight into the current state of the voice biometrics market now that the debate is well-beyond "whether the technology works." In recent months, high-profile financial institutions, government agencies, health insurance underwriters, and hosted service providers have integrated voice authentication into their self-service and ID-verification infrastructures. These deployments have helped solidify voice biometrics as a field-tested technology.
Dan Miller, Senior Analyst with Opus Research, and Chuck Buffum, VP of Authentication Solutions at Nuance, will engage in a wide-ranging discussion highlighting:
- Three primary drivers that lead to a voice biometric deployment
- Current case studies from across the globe
- ROI justifications and the primary metrics used to measure successful deployments
This webinar is the latest in Opus Research's "Visionary Series" -- a set of live, interactive webcasts that take a glimpse into the not-too-distant future of telephony-based services.
Speakers:
- Dan Miller - Senior Analyst, Opus Research
- Chuck Buffum - VP of Authentication Solutions, Mobile & Enterprise Division, Nuance Communications
To receive a copy of the slide presentation from the webcast, please email Derek Top, Director of Research, Opus Research.
Saudi Credit Bureau Taps Agnitio for Enhanced Security
By Derek Top | August 31, 2009
The public acknowledgement of customer wins is a rare occurrence in the world of voice biometric deployments.
Thus it is of interest to note that SIMAH, the Saudi Arabia Credit Bureau, is deploying a voice biometric solution provided by Agnitio and IST, a contact center system integrator. The technology is part of IST's iSecure product and will be deployed through SIMAH's new Cisco contact center.
According to Eng. Mohamed H. Al-Hajeri, SIMAH's business development manager, the solution will be a component in the company's security procedures for consumers and members ordering credit reports. "It means that our ability to deliver information automatically and securely to authorize people is greatly increased. Ultimately, that's the aim of our service: to allow members to make lending decisions quickly and more objectively through delivery of comprehensive information," said Al-Hajeri.
SIMAH will launch the customer-facing deployment in October 2009.
Angel.com Partners With VoiceVault
By Derek Top | August 27, 2009
IVR solutions provider Angel.com announced it was partnering with VoiceVault, a U.K-based provider of voice biometric verification technology.
According to the release, the partnership is intended to "provide customers with secure, efficient and quick identity verification services. These services offer a more practical and secure alternative to PINs, passwords and other security options, ultimately saving the caller time and improving their experience."
No customers were named in the announcement.
In addition to the VoiceVault agreement, Angel.com also announced new partnerships with Novauris, which offers a speech recognition technology to capture names and addresses, and Plug'n Pay, providers of voice-based e-commerce solutions designed to simplify payment processing.
Convergys Promotes Voice Biometrics for the Call Center
By Derek Top | August 13, 2009
Contact centers remain vulnerable to ID fraud as passwords and PINs are "increasingly flawed" security measures in preventing criminals from assuming the identity of customers over the phone. Or so says Frank Sherlock, Managing Director, International, at Convergys.
In an article for Call Centre Helper in the U.K, Sherlock says current contact center security procedures "date back to the first days of telephone banking" and outlines the reasons why voice biometrics offers an additional layer of security.
While the global economic downturn has slowed efforts of many banks and financial services in deploying voice biometrics, Sherlock points to a promising pilot in the U.K.
At Convergys we have a Top 10 financial service provider that has been trialing our [voice authentication] solution for the past few months. Using an employee-based pilot, the feedback to date has been positive, with the calls going very smoothly. We hope to deploy solutions in Europe in the future.
In May, Convergys formally launched its on-demand voice authentication service, based on the partnership with Trade Harbor. As well, the company offers an "on-premises" solutions for contact centers, building on the technology developed by Intervoice.
BioAuthorize Releases iPhone Security App
By Derek Top | July 14, 2009
Arizona-based BioAuthorize, Inc. has released an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch allowing users to protect content and access to contacts by setting up voice profiles to authenticate their identity. The application, yadaBlackBook, is offered through the Apple App Store at $3.99 per download. The company has already developed a similar app for Blackberry handheld personal electronic devices.
A similar product employing voice biometrics as a method to secure access and content for endpoint devices is VOICESAFE, introduced to the iPhone App Store in June 2009. The application, developed by VOICE.TRUST, encrypts a phone owner's PINs and passwords through a voiceprint authentication process. The application is free of charge for a four-week trial period, with an additional fee associated with an unlimited version.
Additionally, Silicon Valley-based SecuriMobile provides a software-based technology solution, VoiceLock, designed to protect information access and transactions performed on mobile devices. Working in conjunction with Agnitio as a technology partner, SecuriMobile's solution supports a variety of mobile platforms including BlackBerry RIM, iPhone and Android.
Vodafone Turkey Offers Customers Voice Biometric-Based Authentication
By Dan Miller | June 23, 2009
The adoption of voiceprints to authenticate wireless subscribers is accelerating, thanks to a new installation of PerSay's VocalPassword(TM) developed and installed by Turkish speech application specialist SPEECHOUSE at Vodafone Turkey. With roughly 16 million subscribers, Vodafone Turkey is the second largest mobile carrier in the country. Yet, if past is prologue, the incorporation of voice authentication into the customer care fabric of any Vodafone subsidiary is bound to have implications across all of its properties - an empire of over 300 million customers.
The deployment as a milestone in a couple of respects. The mobile market holds huge potential for speaker authentication for customer care and electronic payments. In addition, Vodafone Turkey clearly sees subscriber authentication as a source of differentiation in a long-standing battle for share versus Turkcell. In that pursuit, SPEECHOUSE has successfully integrated speaker authentication into the IVR-based Vodafone Voice Portal Platform. The immediate result is the use of a spoken password for secure self service applications the mobile equivalent of password reset, GSM PUK (Personal Unlocking Key) reset.
We'll be learning more about the details and timing of the complete in the coming days to include in an advisory, and in our long-standing set of company and deployment dossiers.
Voice Biometrics 2009: Building on Expectations
By Dan Miller and Derek Top | June 17, 2009
[Opus Research released its latest report and forecast of voice biometric technologies and solutions: "Voice Biometrics 2009: Building on Expectations." Below is a brief excerpt that addresses the overall objective of voice biometric technologies in customer care settings.]
The Message of Voice Biometrics: "Your Identity is Important to Us"
One of the banes of phone-based commerce is the phrase, "Your call is important to us." It tends to be the last thing an inbound customer hears from an IVR system before being put on interminable hold. It would be much more reassuring - and accurate - for an IVR to say that "Your identity is very important to us" and then, rather than indiscriminately placing each call on hold, to treat each caller according to his or her expressed preferences, status, or other known attributes.
Both businesses and technology providers repeatedly affirm that "caller experience is of paramount importance." Yet, that does not mean that they place risk management or security in a lesser role. They recognize that speaker verification provides a mechanism to serve these seemingly contradictory goals - highly usable, highly secure interactions.
For too long the most common practice for handling inbound calls was to put even their best customers through onerous question-and-answer routines to validate their identity based on "knowledge-based authentication." While it is deemed "good enough," it is neither customer-friendly (because it takes so long), nor particularly secure (because the information is often available through a number of physical or online sources).
Instead of making the spurious claim that "your call is important to us," leading-edge service providers, like Australia's largest healthcare specialist ahm (Australia Health Management), and one of its top banks (National Australia Bank) are showing customers in practice that "your identity is important to us." Their use cases are "inclusive," meaning that the use of speaker verification addresses both UI and security concerns, providing a "win-win" for customer and company alike. Both recognize that quick, accurate authentication is beneficial to the customers as well as to the business enterprise.
Strong Authentication Raises Confidence
As the number of customer-facing voice verification implementations grows, enterprises and their technology providers have already learned the value of strong caller authentication. They've also learned that voice biometric authentication never exists in a vacuum. Low levels of confidence in a voice biometric match seldom leads to outright rejection of a call. Instead, they trigger routines to obtain other information that can include CallerID or ANI (automated number identification) as well as "risk profiles" based on customer records, transaction history, "last known location" and the like.
Voice biometric-based authentication can replace or augment the entry of the caller's account number. When the captured utterance matches a stored voiceprint, the authentication engine returns a high-confidence indicator ("green light"). If there are no other concerns, the caller can proceed toward accomplishing the purpose of the call.
As for market potential, Opus Research sees global spending on Voice Biometrics-based solutions (a category that goes far beyond customer care to include automated password reset, remote "time and attendance" reporting, voice signatures, mobile security and the like) reaching about $124 million in 2009 and growing to roughly $260 million in 2014 (roughly 16% compounded annual growth rate).
The biggest challenge is developing expeditious call flows for handling calls which, for any number of reasons, might fall into one or more gray areas in user authentication. Perhaps the risk profile is high and the call originates from a noisy environment. Automated, phone-based authentication could be difficult. Businesses, and their technology providers, must also build the business logic to govern situations where there is a strong match to the voice biometric, but the risk management system calls for additional authentication based on other metadata (such as a report of a lost payment card).
Solutions providers offer a considerable number of options to deal with the instances where other resources (such as the risk management system) yield a "yellow," or worse "red" light. Calls may originate from unknown devices, in unexpected geographic locations. The voice biometric may indicate strong confidence in the caller’s identity, but he or she may not remember a pass-phrase or know the actual response to a wallet-based query. (How many of us can accurately answer, "What was the exact amount of your last purchase at a bar or eating establishment?") Companies have considerable leeway in designing call flows and agent scripts for these instances.
A well-designed authentication routine will minimize the instances that require lengthy, agent-based authentication. Experience in the field is helping to establish "best practices" for dealing with those "caution light" situations when a caller cannot be totally rejected, nor can a company readily allow them access them to sensitive information or personal funds. Agents have important roles to play in establishing caller expectation and, in essence, training them to use the system. They may end up resorting to KBA (knowledge-based authentication) but they will be able to explain to the customer why they are being subjected to further questioning.
The customer care pendulum is swinging away from a short list of company-driven choices toward a wide-range of customer-defined interactions and transactions. Rapid recognition and protection of a caller's identity and associated information is the basis of higher quality customer care. Over the phone, deployment of voice biometric-based identity proofing can make such authentication simpler, faster and more pleasant. A growing body of "real world" experience shows that voice biometrics streamline the authentication process and lead to shorter calls which are more economical for the company and a better experience for the caller.
National Australia Bank Launches Customer-Facing Voice Biometric Service
By Derek Top | June 10, 2009
Australia continues to be a hotbed for the latest in voice biometrics announcements. In another widely rumored deployment, National Australia Bank (NAB) has officially launched a voice verification service, making it available to the company's 3.3 million personal banking customers.
Aimed at "delivering enhanced customer experience and security," the public deployment comes after NAB ran a successful internal pilot involving 2,000 branch staff in May. The voice biometrics-based service is part of a multi-million dollar effort to upgrade a range of new security functions available to NAB personal banking customers.
According to a company statement, "With identity theft related fraud increasingly moving to the phone channel, the use of voice biometrics enables the effective identification, authentication and verification of customers, offering an extra layer of protection," said Warren Shaw, executive general manager with NAB Personal Banking.
Successful authentication pilot programs have long been rumored for financial services organizations, but NAB's official launch marks the first bank - both in Australia and globally - to go public with a large-scale, customer-facing service. More to come...
Aviva Launches Voice Biometric Capability
By Derek Top | June 9, 2009
Speaking at last month's Voice Leadership Forum in Sydney, Australia, Paul Magee, managing director with Salmat VeCommerce, predicted "an insurance company and bank are going live with biometrics technology in the next few weeks."
True to Magee's word, Australian life insurance and wealth management provider Aviva today announced the deployment of a voice biometric service to expedite the process of routing customers to appropriate resources over the phone. Utilizing Salmat VeCommerce's VeSecure service, callers to Aviva can be quickly verified in order to access all insurance, investment and superannuation products. Enrollment to the service takes approximately two minutes, but Aviva guarantees "subsequent calls will be a faster and better experience."
In a statement, Frank Lombardo, Group Director Operations at Aviva said, "Voice biometrics is yet another way in which Aviva is improving the experience for both our customers and financial planners."
Aviva has set up a page on its website to address frequently asked questions about the voice verification system and includes a prominent mention on the company's home page.
Aviva Australia, combined with funds management arm Aviva Investors, manages or administers more than AUD$19.2 billion in funds for more than 350,000 customers. Both are part of the global Aviva group, the world's fifth largest insurance group.
Centrelink Unveils Voice Authentication System
By Derek Top | May 28, 2009
In a widely anticipated deployment, Australian social services agency Centrelink has officially launched a biometric speaker verification system used to authenticate customer access to welfare services. The $2 million system has been in development for more than two years, including a pilot program for students and families, and is now available to up to 60,000 Centrelink customers.
Because customers were having trouble remembering passwords for phone access, speaker verification was implemented as "the only thing that might work beyond a PIN," said Ross Summerfield, Project Manager with Centrelink. Additionally, the voice self-service system frees up Centrelink employees to handle more complex cases and hopes to improve staff efficiency in handling some 28 million calls per year.
While the opt-in system is initially targeting "customers without complex lodging requirements and who may need to routinely update simple information," Summerfield says they have no intention of rolling it out to all Centrelink customers. To recruit the initial customers, employees have been actively calling and inviting prospective users.
Summerfield says enrollment takes about five minutes, with a customer repeating an access number three times, their name twice and counting "1 to 9" a minimum of two times. Once authenticated, the user has access to all telephone self-service offerings.
Telecommunications provider Telstra has managed the service delivery, while KAZ provided project management for connecting the system components to Centrelink's security services. As well, KAZ built dual, text-independent speaker verification engines, with Nuance providing an additional text-dependent engine.
Since the program was only officially made available this week to Centrelink customers, there's little in the way of customer feedback to determine the program's success. But Summerfield said measurements during the 2007-2008 pilot showed that 90% of callers would prefer to use speaker verification over a PIN, with 95% finding the system friendly and easy to use and 98% saying they would use it the next time they accessed Centrelink.
Study Finds Consumers Leery of Current ID Proofing Techniques
By Derek Top | May 14, 2009
A comprehensive study into consumer perceptions and attitudes in Australia and New Zealand has found increasing concern that current forms of identity verification, such as PINs and passwords, are less than adequate security measures in preventing identity theft. In an online survey of more than 400 consumers, callcentres.net found 67% of respondents were "very or mostly concerned" about identity theft compared to 63% a year ago.
And while high-profile security breaches and subsequent media coverage may fuel this public concern, the study, sponsored by Salmat VeCommerce, found 37% of Australians (and 22% of New Zealanders) have directly experienced, or know a friend or family member to have experienced, identity fraud or theft.
Additionally, consumers are increasingly uneasy that PINs and passwords could be guessed or otherwise compromised leading to stolen information and possible theft. According to Laurence Jackson, research manager with callcentres.net, the ever-growing number of PINs and passwords is adding to the uneasiness.
"There is considerable frustration among consumers at having to remember multiple PINs and passwords when dealing with various organizations," says Jackson. The study found that 70% of Australian consumers have more than 4 active PINs, accounting for a total of more than 63 million.
Underscoring consumers' caution towards the more traditional methods of identity verification, the study found voice biometrics as the preferred method of identification processes (45%), followed by PIN (21%), password (18%) and personal details or history questions (16%). To provide a clear understanding of how a biometric identification process works, Jackson said the respondents were each given a brief demo of the technology and then asked whether they would use it.
Still, some of the data presented in the study signals that consumers' perceptions of identification technologies remains conflicted at best. For example, asked when an organization "uses more technology I feel my personal information is secure" some 33% of consumers "strongly or mostly" disagreed, compared to 26% in 2008. And when asked "how simple or complex a process you would ideally like organizations to use when identifying you," 75% of Australians wanted a "very or fairly" complex security process, up from 64% the year before.
Jackson says these contradictions are perception realities and reflect a need for technology providers to better educate consumers, as well as pointing "in a good direction toward future technologies, like biometrics."
Convergys Formally Launches On Demand Voice Authentication
By Dan Miller | May 6, 2009
After tantalizing attendees at Bill Meisel's Voice Search Conference in San Diego, relationship management specialist Convergys Corporation formally announced an "on demand voice authentication solution" that integrates Trade Harbor's Voice Signature Service into its call flow. Hot on the heels of Voxeo's partnership with Trade Harbor and news from hosted service provider Salmat VeCommerce that "an insurance company and bank are going live with its biometrics technology in the next few weeks" in Australia, momentum is building for financial services companies around the world to incorporate voice biometric-based caller authentication into their contact center call flows.
In the midst of a general slowdown in IT-infrastructure spending, a hosted approach to caller authentication is starting to take hold. In a briefing, Paul Watson, GM of Multi-Channel Self Service at Convergys, told Opus Research that the company is prepared to offer either an "on-premises" solutions (building on a stronghold established by Intervoice) or on-demand, much like a Web service, based on the partnership with Trade Harbor. Indeed one of Convergys' clients is already using the on-demand service and has found the hosted approach to be a good way to accelerate development while minimizing capital expense.
There are strong signals that the market for voice biometric-based authentication services is beginning to stir again after a few chilly quarters. In addition to the financial services vertical, healthcare, credit card payment processing and phone-based commerce loom, once again, as potentially fertile ground for new implementations. And the sleeping giant of government transfer payments is showing signs of growth in a few countries around the world.
Opus Research estimates that spending on commercially available, voice biometric-based authentication and verification solutions will approach $145 million in 2009, reflecting growth in the 15% range, which is double the growth in 2008 over 2007. The increased growth rate can be attributed to greater flexibility exhibited by solutions providers, like Convergys, as well as a greater appreciation by prospective buyers that voice biometrics offers a superior user experience while supporting secure transactions and commerce over the phone.
Our latest findings and market assessment, along with dossiers on the major technology providers, will be included in "Voice Biometric Market Potential Report: 2009-2014," to be issued this month. It is an update of the well-respected forecast and planning guide issued by Opus Research since 2005.
Raytheon Integrates Loquendo Voice Security Library
By Dan Miller | April 23, 2009
It has long been clear that voice biometric-based speaker identification and verification technology providers will ride into government IT infrastructure on the coat-tails of approved vendors. As a case in point, Raytheon Company is integrating Loquendo's Voice Security Library into Redwolf(TM), its "one-stop" suite of solutions for collection, storage and analysis of digital audio and VoIP (Voice over IP) communications.
In a press release, Loquendo explains that Raytheon chose the LVSL to shorten the time it takes to filter voluminous amounts of data "by identifying the voice(s), language(s) and gender of the speaker."
Raytheon is one of the largest military contractors with over 73,000 employees and revenues in 2008 in excess of $23 billion.
This signals heightened activity in the speaker identification domain as military contractors seek packaged technologies from voice biometric vendors to complement their solutions set. Spanish technology provider Agnitio has had success in the forensic field for law enforcement for a number of years. In addition Lockheed Martin will be including voice biometric technologies from PerSay at a showcase called BEACON (Biometric Experimentation and Advanced Concepts) to be held on May 4.
The partnership puts emphasis on flexibility and speed-to-deploy for applications or services that want to add another factor for user authentication. Voxeo has done an excellent job of constantly adding to the tools and capabilities of its platforms. It attracts new developer/partners by constantly adding new tools, capabilities and APIs (application programming interfaces) to its arsenal.
Even though customer service applications are decidedly multimodal these days (involving the Web, email and even Tweets), more than half of e-commerce culminates in a phone call. During these tough financial times, the need to authenticate callers is more acute than ever. Voxeo's developer community will find that voice signatures are stronger than a PIN (which can be stolen) and more convenient than the challenge questions that "knowledge-based authentication" schemes insert into the call flow.
Financial service providers, payment processors, telecommunications firms and government agencies have been the first to offer high-volume voice biometri-based authentication. We're looking forward to seeing what the fertile minds of the new generation of phone application developers build the better authentication mousetrap for a broader variety of applications and customer groups.
Voxeo and Trade Harbor Announce Partnership for Voice Biometric Authentication
By Dan Miller | April 23, 2009
Voice biometric-based authentication and security took one step deeper into 'The Cloud' as Voxeo and Trade Harbor announced a partnership. Voxeo is a provider of both premises-based and hosted platforms for standards-based interactive voice response (IVR) applications. Trade Harbor launched its efforts to expand the reach of voice-based authentication using a Software as a Service (SaaS) model back in 1999. The two companies are joining forces at a time that Opus Research believes will be looked back on as an inflection point in the adoption voiceprints for customer-facing services offered over the phone.
The partnership puts emphasis on flexibility and speed-to-deploy for applications or services that want to add another factor for user authentication. Voxeo has done an excellent job of constantly adding to the tools and capabilities of its platforms. It attracts new developer/partners by constantly adding new tools, capabilities and APIs (application programming interfaces) to its arsenal.
Even though customer service applications are decidedly multimodal these days (involving the Web, email and even Tweets), more than half of e-commerce culminates in a phone call. During these tough financial times, the need to authenticate callers is more acute than ever. Voxeo's developer community will find that voice signatures are stronger than a PIN (which can be stolen) and more convenient than the challenge questions that "knowledge-based authentication" schemes insert into the call flow.
Financial service providers, payment processors, telecommunications firms and government agencies have been the first to offer high-volume voice biometri-based authentication. We're looking forward to seeing what the fertile minds of the new generation of phone application developers build the better authentication mousetrap for a broader variety of applications and customer groups.
Financial Service Consortium to Study Biometrics for Banking
By Dan Miller | April 10, 2009
The Financial Services Technology Consortium, a group of technology executives with representatives from Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, among others, has launched a research initiative to study various biometric technologies and how they could be used to discourage fraudsters' efforts at identity theft or account take-over. While a number of banks around the world are already trialing or piloting biometric-based authentication for both online and call center-based access, as evident from this report in SearchFinancialSecurity.com, adoption and deployment has been plagued by a lack of understanding.
FSTC's Executive Director Dan Schutzer acknowledges the whole topic of where biometrics fit into user authentication is "a fairly complex subject." He mentions that banks would be sharing information comparing various biometric approaches, use cases, and best practices. According to the report "the initiative will also explore the possibility of a shared database with biometric data of known fraudsters, which could help financial institutions prevent both insider and external fraud. While this sort of "black list" is one of the more rudimentary approaches to fraud detection, it is a step in the right direction in terms of defining ways that financial institutions can share infrastructure and make biometric authentication more affordable and commonplace.
That said, I was discouraged to read that an analyst from the Burton Group, one of the most respected firms in the network security domain, characterized biometric security as "simply a non-starter in the retail online banking space," adding that "customers absolutely refuse to use a hardware-based authentication solution." I couldn't disagree more. For one thing, voice biometrics don't require customers to carry additional hardware, and we've seen voice biometrics used in conjunction with online banking through the use of an outbound telephone call to capture a password or voiceprint.
More importantly, a number of customer authentication strategies already treat mobile devices as if they were tokens for one-time passwords (OTPs) by transmitting a unique series of digits via text messaging to support remote access either through the telephone or an desktop computer. Banking, like most other e-commerce and Internet-based activity in general, is steadily becoming mobile. As it does, the types of activities that will take place over mobile phones is broadening significantly. Adding a voice biometric to other factors (such as a PIN or secure SIM card) will provide the basis for inexpensive, accurate user authentication. As frequent users become more security conscious, the use of a "spoken token" can give users more confidence in using mobile channels to carry out more of their online activities.
Biometric Authentication Plans for iPhone
By Dan Miller | March 30, 2009
In a post on AppleInsider, reporter Aidan Malley is reporting a "stealth" development effort at Apple that could result in protecting iPhones with a selected biometric. According to the report, Apple published a patent filing indicating that it would use an embedded sensor or a component "repurposed from its original role" to capture biometric data that provides confidence that the individual trying to gain access to the whole device or to personal data on the device is, indeed, who he or she claims to be.
The article mentions flat screens, keyboards, or front-facing cameras as candidates for capturing unique biometric attributes such as fingerprints, vein patterns or iris coloration and patterns. Nothing is out of bounds. Malley notes that "Apple goes so far as to suggest the possibility of recognizing the user's distinctive voice or even collecting DNA samples to recognize a user's genetic sequence. Biometrics could also be context-sensitive and detect the shape of a user's ear before allowing a call to go through, for example."
Thus there is hope for voice biometric authentication to be featured on what has emerged to be the showcase, forward-looking smartphone for industrial design, application diversity and features (in the U.S. at least). Voice should be the most sensible biometric authentication method in the context of using a phone.
U.K. Fraud Losses Rise in 2008
By Derek Top | March 19, 2009
APACS, the U.K. payments association, has released figures showing card fraud losses in the U.K. totaled £609.9 million in 2008, up 14% from 2007. Additionally, online banking fraud jumped to £52.5 million last year, up from £22.6 million in 2007.
In a statement, APACS pointed to a rapid acceleration in banking fraud overseas has contributed to the card losses and emphasized chip-and-pin technology as a security prevention measure:
The two main areas of fraud were on transactions not protected by chip and PIN: specifically Internet, phone and mail order fraud; and fraud abroad - committed by criminals using stolen U.K. card details in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN - which has nearly doubled in two years.
The study found "card-not-present" fraud losses increased by 13% over the last year and account for 54% of all card fraud losses. Most significantly, card ID theft - when criminals take over other people's accounts, sometimes through social engineering measures - accounted for £47.4 million of fraud losses, up 37% from the previous year.
[T]he increase in fraud through online and phone transactions should be seen alongside the growing use of these shopping channels, as well as increasing numbers of businesses accepting cards remotely.
APACS publishes figures twice a year on U.K. payment industry fraud losses.
VoiceVerified To Close Operations
By Derek Top | March 18, 2009
Pennsylvania-based voice authentication provider VoiceVerified is closing its doors. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer quotes a letter sent to investors on March 4th stating the firm had "begun winding down company operations."
Mark Schweiker, former Pennsylvania governor and current president and chief executive of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, was on VoiceVerified's board of directors and, according to the article, referred questions to James J. Volk, the firm's former chief financial officer:
Volk said yesterday that the six-year-old firm had never been able to gain financial traction before it was overwhelmed by the current economic realities.
The company suffered because its key customer base included banks and other financial institutions, which are at the core of the downturn.
VoiceVerified, a software-as-a-service provider of voice biometrics technologies, had a total of nine employees and reportedly raised $10 million to $20 million in investment during its tenure.
Agnitio Secures Second Round of Funding
By Derek Top | March 6, 2009
Agnitio, a Madrid-based voice biometric technology provider, has announced a Series B funding of €5.5 million (US$ 6.9 million) led by Elaia Partners. The round included participation of Nauta Capital, an investor who specializes in technology companies in both Europe and the U.S., who was responsible for an initial round of €2.7 million in late 2007.
In the announcement, Xavier Lazarus, General Partner at Elaia Partners said, "Already leaders in Homeland Security, [Agnitio's] offerings also bring a new way of considering authentication to many markets, including the telecommunication or the home banking industries."
Additionally,Emilio Martinez, CEO at Agnitio, said, "We are delighted with achieving this second round of funding from Nauta and Elaia especially in the current climate of severe economic conditions."
Earlier in the week, Agnitio reported that Medical Management Technology Group, Inc. (MMTG), providers of technology to improve home-based healthcare, signed a contract to deploy Medify Home Health Verification with Onondaga County in New York. Onondaga County is the first county in New York State to provision the service with the first implementation rolled out to users in January 2009.
Medify, powered by Agnitio's Kivox voice biometrics technology, is a phone-based time tracking system integrated with voice verification. Once a home caretaker is enrolled, they are required to call into a system to verify checking in at a patient's home.
Singapore Emerging as a Focal Point for Voice Biometrics
By Derek Top | February 25, 2009
A couple of recent announcements have brought a spotlight to Singapore as an emerging hub for voice biometrics applications being deployed throughout Asia.
According to an article at Straits Times, the Singapore airport authority is considering using voiceprints as a way of authenticating travelers. Singapore passengers currently interact with thumb and iris identification devices, but voice biometrics offers the advantage of remote authentication verifying the identity when compared to a database of voiceprints. Still, some skeptics wonder how the system would work to identify those passengers who don't have a voiceprint on record.
Elsewhere, PerSay has announced a new go-to-market partner with Singapore-based INS Indriya, a technology consulting firm focused on voice applications and CRM solutions.
"The partnership with INS Indriya will provide our customers and prospects in Singapore and Asia with a local center of excellence and competence around the PerSay products," said Ariel Freidenberg, Executive VP of Global Sales at PerSay, in a statement.
In Asia, PerSay currently names YeSpeech as a partner in providing mobile banking services in Korea and AC Corporation is a partner at GSIS - the Philippines primary pension program who has deployed a voice biometric system to allow its more than 1.2 million members secure access to pension services over the phone.
VoiceVault Readies Voice Offerings for Texas State Government Agencies
By Derek Top | February 18, 2009
VoiceVault, in a partnership with Austin Biometrics, has completed negotiations with the state of Texas to offer voice biometrics solutions to any state government agency. According to the agreement, VoiceVault has been awarded a GoDIRect contract paving the way for any Texas government agency the ability to order product offerings.
The offerings, which are billed as-a-service, include VoiceTrack, a phone-based time-and-attendance solution; password reset capabilities; caller authentication and VoiceVault's Advanced Electronic Signatures service. Under the new agreement, according to VoiceVault VP of North America Julia Webb, the company's voice biometrics services could be used by state agencies as payment verification for everything from recording taxes, benefits, and other payment solutions. According to Webb, the state of Texas government had become aware of and interested in voice biometrics to support home-based detention.
Webb also mentioned the continuing roll-out of its voice signature service for Wellpoint is now being deployed in 17 states, with Texas and California next on the list. Internal monitoring by VoiceVault, says Webb, is showing a rate of 1000-1,500 voice signatures being added every day. The voice signature service is intended to help insurance providers reduce costs in lowering agent time and expediting the process to complete applications.
Australian Welfare Agency Centrelink Intros Voice ID for Customers
By Derek Top | February 3, 2009
Australian social services agency Centrelink will implement a voice biometrics system to authenticate customers over the phone, according to an Australian IT article. The agency has been experimenting with voice authentication for a number of years and started late last year with an internal pilot of 10 employees to test and refine a new system.
Telecommunications provider Telstra has worked with Centrelink in developing the pilot and will help deploy a customer-facing application to authenticate users over the phone via a voiceprint rather than providing a client number and password.
In the interview, Centrelink CIO John Wadeson says the agency has been aware of voice biometrics for a number of years but it now sees it ready for large-scale deployments:
"We were one of the first organisations back in 2002 to use voice as an online service when it was used to lodge income reports," said Wadeson. "For the past two years we've been playing with voice authentication, but until six months ago it wasn't ready for serious us. Now that it has matured, we have readied our IT systems to support this technology and are all set to go with it this year."
Wadeson said the voice authentication system would not only improve the security of accessing personal details through Centrelink, but would also improve the efficiency of the agency's call-centre operations, which handle some 28 million calls a year.