Security is an ongoing cycle of a proverbial bigger bullet versus tougher armor. The perpetual cat and mouse game is not just true of security in the conventional means (like a police station or a military installation) but IT security, fraud prevention, and so forth. Hospitals, financial firms, insurance agencies… virtually every business has some sort of responsibility to keep their clients secure.
Including call centers. Call centers house a considerable amount of data from a very wide customer base. Regardless of the type of call center, bypassing security is fairly easy, as long as it involves the human potential for error. Even verifying information, such as a PIN, address, or telephone number can be relatively easy for an experienced fraudster. Moreover, someone intent on obtaining information can call several places and piecemeal small bits of information together for the big picture.
Until now.
What is Voice Biometrics?
Voice biometrics uses a person’s voice for authentication. Each person’s voice has unique identifying biological characteristics, which can be recognized and confirmed through the use of voice biometrics. This makes it easier for callers to access their own data, while eliminating human error and helping to deliver additional protection against fraud.
Voice Biometrics for Call Centers
Voice Biometrics is a developing industry for call center authentication. While the technology is still being adopted in a systematic fashion by call centers, the accuracy is truly remarkable. This minimizes the human margin of error, which is the most frequent (although inadvertent) means to releasing sought-after information. Having this type of software can drastically increase the effect of safety in an age where hackers are increasingly clever.
Using this level of sophistication provides an increased layer of security. While voice biometrics isn’t fool proof, it is still considerably easier to convince a person, rather than an in-depth data analysis, of a fraudulent person’s innocence – thus obtaining information. And this is the heart of the benefit.
How Does Voice Biometrics Work?
A voice biometric analyzes two separate components: physiological, which is the actual voice and pitch, and the accent. Elaborate software compares the two to previous analysis provided by the customer, and can distinguish even the most subtle differences that humans cannot. It provides a very safe and effective means of authentication that, paired with other methods, mitigates the risk of a security breach considerably.
It can also integrate with unified communications as well as other speech recognition software to provide a fully secured configuration. Unified communications provide an exceptionally efficient method for general communication, in part because of its versatility.
Voice biometrics is not meant to be used as an exclusive means to manage security. Quite the opposite: they are designed to be an augmentation for additional support. There will always be a level of human error, as well as a multi-layered necessity for security. Increasingly, mobile support (e.g. confirmation codes) is used for confirmation and verification. This limits fraud considerably.
But what about fraudulent activities that use both the internet and phone calls? Some hackers use online information to call in to a business, and vice versa. This provides all the more reason to use some sort of uniquely identifiable material, like voice biometrics, that cannot easily be spoofed. Even a Man in the Middle attack will not be able to duplicate it. For online information, it’s wise to use multiple passwords to multiple sites, and keep information (such as your bank name) off social media statuses and tweets.
What are the Benefits of Voice Biometrics?
Voice biometrics offer a very unique, secure, and readily identifiable means to authenticate your account. Moreover, if someone calls in pretending to be you, their voice can be saved, recorded, and analyzed for the entire company so future access to information will be denied. This powerful and effective means of security is on the rise, and will likely become a standard, integrated part of call center security.
