Business Development Manager, Vodafone Carrier Services
In the age of data breaches, cyber-attacks and social engineering, it’s clear that keeping ahead of cybercrime will always be a challenge.
This has become even more important as COVID changes the way we work and live. Lockdown restrictions have closed physical branches, moving consumers into the home and accessing services through other channels such as mobile apps.
With this change in behaviour comes new threats: reports of COVID-related cybercrime have grown as fraudsters look to take advantage of fear and uncertainty.
Pandemic-aside, in the eCommerce space almost 70% of all transactions now begin on mobile devices.
That’s why brands, especially in high risk industries such the financial services, are constantly looking for new ways to protect the end user and stop fraud.
For example, most of us are now comfortable with two-factor authentication (2FA) as a way to verify identity and reinforce passwords, but what more can be done to protect the end user?
The next step in identity verification
For some time now technology communications companies have been exploring more secure, intuitive methods to protect their customers from digital fraud and impersonation.
These new techniques have grown with the implementation of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Payment Services Directive.
Aside from the occasional high-profile data breach, the reality is that most fraudsters are able to do a lot with relatively little data. They rely on trickery, deception and social engineering to succeed.
Although these techniques might seem simple, a single incident can have major consequences, leaving end-users out of pocket and frustrated. And in today’s world, customer trust is king.
That’s why we work closely with our clients in the financial services industry to share signals that might highlight potential risks, allowing customers to mitigate them.
Cyber-crime has increased as more people go online during lockdown. Photo credit: Unsplash
Making split second decisions
This might mean raising the alarm when a contact number on a new credit card application doesn’t match the number on file, or checking when a SIM was last swapped to make sure a one-time password is sent to the right person.
Using these indicators and working with industry guidelines we have created the Vodafone Identity Hub, an open standard, secure platform that allows businesses to protect their end users.
The hub helps customers with identity verification, registration on mobile applications and account takeover detection, using real-time data from our network to help stop fraud before it happens.
The hub has been designed with privacy in mind so that these indicators can be shared with organisations without compromising customer privacy.
Already used by some of the UK’s largest banks and eCommerce providers, the Vodafone Identity Hub protects businesses and improves the overall user experience.