Hosted IVR

July 19, 2012

Hosted IVR: StrikeForce, TradeHarbor Offer SaaS-Based 'Three-Factor' Voice Verification

By Erin Harrison
Executive Editor, Cloud Computing

With the proliferation of mobile devices and mobile applications, businesses continue to hone in on regulatory compliance concerns with CIOs looking to ensure accountability, first and foremost.

Authentication company StrikeForce Technologies, Inc. and software maker TradeHarbor have teamed up to offer a “three-factor” voice verification service intended to meet compliance regulations by combining three critical factors – who you are, what you have and what you know – over a mobile device.

StrikeForce holds several patents for multi-factor “out-of-band” authentication, which also includes biometric authentication methods – the same technology used to support the Edison, N.J.-based firm’s ProtectID authentication service for avoiding security breaches, according to Mark Kay, CEO of StrikeForce.

“Combining voice verification and out-of-band authentication together to help prevent online fraud was a natural integration waiting to happen,” Kay said in a company statement. “We can now offer a higher level of security with choices at a fair price.”

Company officials said the three-factor voice verification is ideal for industries that are most vulnerable to hackers, including: Banking, financial services, healthcare, online retail, government agencies, pharmaceuticals, public sector organizations, education, energy?and construction facilities.

With the propagation of mobile devices in the workplace, organizations need to provide higher levels of security for BYOD, according to Paul Heirendt, CEO of TradeHarbor.

“This combined offering is a ground-breaking new approach to authentication that provides a level of accountability that has not been available before,” Heirendt said. “With the proliferation of mobile devices and mobile applications, enterprises need strong multi-factor authentication and accountability to provide the security for BYOD, which allows users to access sensitive data on their own devices.”

The verification service, which is offered as Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)), allows organizations to offer customers a consistent authentication experience across business units and on any of its platforms, Heirendt added.

Each verification interaction produces a legally binding voice signature combined with out-of-band authentication, which includes an audit trail to mitigate repudiation by the person being authenticated, he said.

“It provides a consistent user experience and has proven to add high security while providing increased convenience and flexibility,” Heirendt explained.

The three-factor voice verification system also minimizes capital expenditures, internal development resource requirements, time to market, and boosts the ROI resulting from cost savings and customer acquisition and retention, he added.

In other hosted IVR news, AT&T (News - Alert) has unveiled speech recognition and transcription application program interfaces (API), built on Watson, the organization’s series of voice recognition offerings, TMCnet reported. Company officials said the APIs will be helpful for developers involved in the creation of apps for smartphones, tablets, TVs or other devices.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

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Edited by Juliana Kenny