Banks Black Plague - Identity Theft.
The Solution – Identification in the Twinkle of the Eye
Sleepless nights in the world of banking and finance: there’s a dramatic increase in bank card fraud cases in Europe, the Middle-East, Asia and the United States, and a wave of identity theft, particularly at vulnerable Automated Teller Machines (ATM) through malicious penetrating practices. Traditional identification methods and remedies seem ineffective to fight the malignant plague. Pin codes, passwords, and cards of all kinds appear futile to counter the ingenuity of the fraudsters that knows no limits. Identification through thumbprint or facial recognition has proven to be less-than-effective and identity fraud is expected to grow dramatically as the percentage of banking transactions conducted online is expected to increase from 22 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in 2010. This will undoubtedly contribute to raise the risk factor level.
A UK based company specializing in Iris Recognition Technology (IRT), IrisGuard Inc, has developed a revolutionary biometric banking solution eliminating the requirement of a plastic card in order to prove ones identity. The efficiency of the company’s unique technology has been tested and proven in Homeland Security, particularly in the United Arab Emirates where the company is the prime contractor combating illegal immigration, at ports of entry where 50 million passengers have had their iris captured and checked over a period of six years, whilst apprehending almost 300,000 persons with fraudulent travel documents. This year the company has extended its security practices and now has its eyes firmly focused on the world’s banking and finance industry.
Previously banks and financial institutions were rather unhurried in adopting new innovative technology such as biometrics. However, recently with the increase in identity theft worldwide there is an augmented interest in identity management solutions combating fraud and identity theft. The powerful solutions and pristine accuracy can noticeably eradicate the malevolent identity theft currently rampant across the financial world.
Solutions need to incorporate innovative features which tackle both security and customer convenience. Banks and financial institutions are deploying the technology at their ATM’s, Customer Service and Teller desks throughout their branch networks. Iris Guard’s iBank Suite® was especially designed to meet the bank customer identity requirements. Consumers want the technology to be user-friendly, accurate, easy-to-use, unobtrusive and blazingly fast and furious. This has been achieved and customer identity recognition can be performed in less than two seconds, whether the customer is at the teller or at the ATM in a mall.
The formidable efficiency of the iBank® solution is achieved thanks to the combination of pristine, custom designed and built iris imagers and the power of the Iris Farm Architecture IFA NexGen® software application. The special iris imagers take a perfectly harmless picture of the customer’s irises in a way that is as simple as taking a snapshot with a consumer digital camera. Since there is no physical contact between the customer and the camera, the method is perfectly safe and hygienic.
Scalable technology called IFA NexGen® performs the iris comparison and recognition that interfaces with the bank’s core application in a seamless manner through the Application Programmer Interface (API). This is flexible technology approach which provides an end to end solution reducing both the cost of development and of ownership.
Many flaws inevitably exist in online banking systems that make it possible for thieves to steal money from any account at any bank. To counter this pandemic, Iris Guard’s technology includes vulnerability countermeasures assessment that detects and defeats any attempt to hide or alter one’s iris with the aim of deceiving the system. Built on iris recognition, it is the most accurate biometric method known to date. protecting the bank and its patrons alike. The absolute uniqueness of one’s iris pattern is a scientifically recognized fact. Not even identical twins have the same iris, and the right and left irises of a given person also are different. The iris has many natural features making it an ideal identifier to which no other biometrics can be compared.
The novel solution enables secure and trusted transactions, whether when opening new accounts, using normal banking services, making deposits, withdrawals, checking balances and applying for loans. It makes remote terminals secure by positively identifying the customer at the point-of-transaction, whether the person is standing before a teller, at the customer service desk, the ATM, or when executing an internet banking transaction.
A card can be lost, stolen or forged, and a pin code can be forgotten but one’s iris cannot. Banks and their customers can sleep with their eyes closed as their identity is protected in the twinkle of the eye.
