ValidSoft, a provider of fraud prevention, authentication and transaction verification solutions and part of the Elephant Talk Group, has partnered with research house Opus Research to release a report titled, “Voice Biometrics Authentication Best Practices: Overcoming Obstacles to Adoption.”

The study, led by Dan Miller (News - Alert), senior analyst at Opus Research, studies previous voice biometric projects and the current industry statistics to identify best practices to rolling out the technology.

As technology providers and system integrators around the world successfully bring their solutions to market, ValidSoft is identifying the product attributes, architectures and deployment strategies that define the best practices in layered, multi-factor and risk-based deployments of voice biometrics.

 With increase in use and security risks associated with, smartphones for payments and banking, with high data theft and increasing awareness of fraud, it is required that banks, businesses and governments to take another look at methods of authenticating end users. Just the secure hardware end points are not enough. Organizations need assurances about the individual at that end point. Voice biometrics has the potential to play an important role in doing this.

Users are using their voice for mobile search, device control and dictation and the study shows that with the proper approach, voice authentication will soon follow. The study by Opus Research says that the global number of registered voiceprints will increase from 10 million today to over 25 million in 2015.

Opus' Dan Miller stated, "Voice biometrics strikes the right balance of strong authentication and usability. It is a powerful tool for preventing fraud and promoting empowerment through self-service, and will in the long run help financial institutions save money from fraudulent transactions and reduced administration costs. The security industry should adopt best practices when introducing voice biometrics to their customers.”

Miller says to: ensure that security is balanced with customer usability; engage stakeholders early in the process and leverage existing resources, gain their trust by proving that the technology works; be ready to adapt; and look ahead for future upgrades and new technology.

"In a social, mobile environment, user authentication has become more important than ever in order to protect unauthorized access to corporate resources and to prevent fraudulent transactions," added Miller.

Pat Carroll, CEO of ValidSoft, commented, "A multi-factor/four-factor approach to user authentication and transaction verification provides robust security without compromising customer experience, and voice biometrics can play an important role in this. This not only applies to Financial Services and Government sectors, but is also relevant to the social media industry and the latest challenges it faces with users' stolen identities. The four aspects of a person's identity that need to be checked are: something you are, namely your voiceprint; something you have which is your mobile phone; something you know, this will be your PIN or password; and somewhere you are (or not), which can be established using privacy-protected signaling services associated with the global mobile networks."

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