Today’s security measures are broken. Here’s how we reboot.
As data breaches dominate the news cycles, it becomes clear that today’s digital security measures (such as passwords, security questions, and multi-factor authentication) are not enough to protect individuals from sophisticated fraudsters and cyber criminals aiming to steal confidential data for financial gain.
To make matters worse, when imposters can’t get around your shiny new MFA deployment, they are grinding down your customer support teams, piling on tickets and forcing time to be lost in your call center. If the dollars spent don’t add up quickly, the fraud loss is likely to.
Companies are spending upwards of $70 per call on these fraudsters, and they are still outsmarting reps every day. While some companies realize they need to adopt more robust security controls in their call centers, such as biometric authentication or tying logins to a government-issued ID, many security solutions don’t tie their users’ biometrics to their actual accounts, failing to provide greater protection (and at times, increasing the risk of sensitive data exposure).
At Nametag, we build solutions to help call centers and support teams at every stage of the customer journey. Reducing the friction and cost associated with MFA and replacing it with identity verification lays the groundwork for a better customer interaction. Our solutions eliminate the need for legacy security controls and focus on validating your customer’s digital identity, or “Nametag”, that is just as valid as flashing their government ID in person.
A Bit of History on Why Passwords and MFA Belong in the Past
While passwords are the primary line of defense to protect our online accounts today, it’s time to acknowledge that cyber criminals have found exploits and tactics to target your customer and employee support desks. When MFA fails, bad actors manipulate your reps without the reps ever knowing who they are really speaking to. And today, all they need is one compromised account to cause serious damage. Budgeting for these issues, even with MFA in place, has become an unexpected cost center for security teams and help desks alike.
When concerns around passwords initially emerged, security experts recommended that users enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to add an additional layer of protection around their accounts. But while security experts at Microsoft found that MFA could neutralize 99.9% of password threats, companies are still seeing record levels of fraud and financial loss from fraud, affecting both the smallest businesses and the largest enterprises.
The biggest common threat vector remains imposters pretending to be your customers and employees. They will claim to be locked out and will stay persistently answering easy security questions, or providing likely already leaked account details. This persistence makes MFA indefensible when the supposed “customer” just wants access to their accounts. Social engineering in the account lockout situation puts account reps on their heels and makes MFA a critical threat vector.
Is Your Company Truly Using Biometric Security?
In response to the threats in today’s security landscape, security teams are starting to introduce biometrics as another layer of protection for key accounts. But while they claim to be selling cutting-edge technology, some biometric security providers are offering solutions that combine legacy technologies and facial recognition which fail to improve their customers’ security posture. To make matters worse, services like ID.me which claim to provide identity verification tied to a government-issued ID will still merely upload IDs to a centralized repository, creating more risk for their users.
Unfortunately, the pain points surrounding these existing security controls consistently overwhelm customer support teams struggling to prevent identity fraud and cyber crime while making sure that a user is who they claim to be.
How Nametag Helps You Reboot Digital Security
At Nametag, we are dedicated to providing solutions for call centers and support teams, ensuring a seamless customer journey while validating digital identities with the same level of authenticity as physically flashing a government ID. It's time to move beyond passwords and MFA, acknowledging the vulnerabilities they present. By budgeting appropriately for these issues and embracing innovative identity verification methods, businesses can reduce friction and cost while enhancing customer interactions.
Let's leave passwords and MFA in the past and pave the way for a more secure digital future. To learn more about how individuals and businesses alike can get a consistent solution to verify and manage their digital identities and assets, you can schedule a demo with us here.
