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By Juan Carlos Tejedor, commercial director of HID Biometrics for Latin America
Providing reliable and secure services, offering a comfortable, consistent and fully satisfying user experience, simplifying processes without increasing investment costs in technology and operations are some of the challenges facing banking institutions today. In addition to this list, there is a minor concern: avoiding fraud.
Currently, there are a variety of solutions with different specialties and specifications, developed by several companies. This dissonance is heightened by the commitment of financial institutions to provide users with useful and reliable tools, especially in the 'mobile' segment. For people who want simplicity and a trusted transaction environment, this fragmented experience can be frustrating, rather than stimulating.
Even more risky is that this fragmentation opens up new opportunities for fraud. As such, large-scale attacks are increasingly common - in which personal information is extracted to open new accounts, initiating a new crime.
Real identity vs. digital identity
Experts say that the best solution to face these challenges is a mobile and integrated multi-channel identity and access management (IAM) platform that improves the user experience and the trust of both parties. Biometrics is an important component in this context.
Unlike a PIN, which uses a key that can be known by more than one person, or a card, which - being something physical - can be stolen, biometrics operates with the true identity of the human being. But, what is the difference between identity and authentication?
In the digital context, the boundaries between the concepts of identity and authentication are quite diffuse and poorly understood. In the physical world, each of us has a unique and true identity. On the other hand, in the digital universe, there are those who have many identities, such as, for example, an email address, a username on a social network, another name or nickname on a portal, etc. To access each of these identities, it is necessary to associate a password and authenticate.
A physical credential can act as a password to access a physical space or even a digital identity. In this case, it is important to consider that anyone can find and carry the credential, even if it does not belong to them, assuming the digital identity associated with the credential, in such a way that the link between the digital identity and the real identity is weak, since they are the means of validating the person's true identity are almost nonexistent.
To prove their true identity, over time methods were created that significantly increased convenience, even sacrificing trust. The most common example is passwords: an inexpensive method, convenient for users, but very weak in terms of security. The vulnerability was heightened and widespread with the arrival of the age of computers and globalization. The answer to this threat was to increase the complexity of passwords - which ended up reducing convenience, although the results were not satisfactory.
Currently, it is possible to count on a solution capable of eliminating fraud and identity theft. It is a solution based on biometric technology. It is holistic, integrated, cost effective, convenient, and maximizes the user experience. Only biometrics can really verify a person's true identity, in addition to providing the only means to unambiguously validate an identity, and it can do so by eliminating the cost, complexity and inherent vulnerabilities of passwords and other methods that are only approach real identity verification.
Brazil at the forefront
It is possible to use biometrics in two cases: as an authentication factor to prove a digital identity and as a method to prove a real identity. The financial industry is at the forefront of implementing biometrics. HID Global's Lumidigm® biometric solutions are an important part of the adoption curve for this technology.
In 2016, more than 81 million Brazilians, customers of the country's five largest banks, used fingerprint biometrics to authenticate financial transactions - carrying out more than three billion transactions at 100,000 ATMs. At two of these banks, inclusive, it is not even necessary to use the bank card - just the account holder 's fingerprint to access his account and make financial transactions.
The benefit of this system is that it has virtually eliminated ATM fraud, providing the user with more convenience and security. The results can already be seen, but in order to have access to all the benefits that biometric technology offers, it is necessary to have an integrated platform, which recognizes the real identity throughout the process: from the establishment to the authentication, that is, that includes a chain of trust. Integrated platforms that include biometric technology position the banking sector, improve the user experience and reduce fraud.
Currently, there are a variety of solutions with different specialties and specifications, developed by several companies. This dissonance is heightened by the commitment of financial institutions to provide users with useful and reliable tools, especially in the 'mobile' segment. For people who want simplicity and a trusted transaction environment, this fragmented experience can be frustrating, rather than stimulating.
Even more risky is that this fragmentation opens up new opportunities for fraud. As such, large-scale attacks are increasingly common - in which personal information is extracted to open new accounts, initiating a new crime.
Real identity vs. digital identity
Experts say that the best solution to face these challenges is a mobile and integrated multi-channel identity and access management (IAM) platform that improves the user experience and the trust of both parties. Biometrics is an important component in this context.
Unlike a PIN, which uses a key that can be known by more than one person, or a card, which - being something physical - can be stolen, biometrics operates with the true identity of the human being. But, what is the difference between identity and authentication?
In the digital context, the boundaries between the concepts of identity and authentication are quite diffuse and poorly understood. In the physical world, each of us has a unique and true identity. On the other hand, in the digital universe, there are those who have many identities, such as, for example, an email address, a username on a social network, another name or nickname on a portal, etc. To access each of these identities, it is necessary to associate a password and authenticate.
A physical credential can act as a password to access a physical space or even a digital identity. In this case, it is important to consider that anyone can find and carry the credential, even if it does not belong to them, assuming the digital identity associated with the credential, in such a way that the link between the digital identity and the real identity is weak, since they are the means of validating the person's true identity are almost nonexistent.
To prove their true identity, over time methods were created that significantly increased convenience, even sacrificing trust. The most common example is passwords: an inexpensive method, convenient for users, but very weak in terms of security. The vulnerability was heightened and widespread with the arrival of the age of computers and globalization. The answer to this threat was to increase the complexity of passwords - which ended up reducing convenience, although the results were not satisfactory.
Currently, it is possible to count on a solution capable of eliminating fraud and identity theft. It is a solution based on biometric technology. It is holistic, integrated, cost effective, convenient, and maximizes the user experience. Only biometrics can really verify a person's true identity, in addition to providing the only means to unambiguously validate an identity, and it can do so by eliminating the cost, complexity and inherent vulnerabilities of passwords and other methods that are only approach real identity verification.
Brazil at the forefront
It is possible to use biometrics in two cases: as an authentication factor to prove a digital identity and as a method to prove a real identity. The financial industry is at the forefront of implementing biometrics. HID Global's Lumidigm® biometric solutions are an important part of the adoption curve for this technology.
In 2016, more than 81 million Brazilians, customers of the country's five largest banks, used fingerprint biometrics to authenticate financial transactions - carrying out more than three billion transactions at 100,000 ATMs. At two of these banks, inclusive, it is not even necessary to use the bank card - just the account holder 's fingerprint to access his account and make financial transactions.
The benefit of this system is that it has virtually eliminated ATM fraud, providing the user with more convenience and security. The results can already be seen, but in order to have access to all the benefits that biometric technology offers, it is necessary to have an integrated platform, which recognizes the real identity throughout the process: from the establishment to the authentication, that is, that includes a chain of trust. Integrated platforms that include biometric technology position the banking sector, improve the user experience and reduce fraud.
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