Behavioral biometrics deployed, researched and renewed to fight fraudulent ecommerce

The past week has been an eventful one for biometrics as a fraud prevention measure.

Clarkson University Professor Daqing Hou received a grant to lead his team in the development of new behavioral biometrics solutions to detect fraudulent eCommerce activities, and Plurilock secured a contract renewal with a U.S. Regional Bank.

Moreover, Equifax announced the acquisition of fraud prevention and risk-based digital identity authentication platform Kount, and BioCatch released new public guidelines on how to use behavioral biometrics for fraud prevention.

Daqing Hou receives NSF grant

The Director of the Software Engineering program at Clarkson University, Daqing Hou, has been awarded a grant from the Innovation Corps Program (I-Corps) of the National Science Foundation.

The new funds will be used by Hou and his team to investigate the potential product market for a proposed software products line aiming at preventing and detecting fraudulent eCommerce activities using behavioral biometrics.

The project would enable eCommerce owners, digital bankers, and healthcare service providers to deploy a new behavioral biometrics-based solution designed to mitigate risks of fraudulent activities after account takeovers.

The tool will feature package state-of-the-art authentication algorithms and will be available to companies via Application Programming Interface (API) calls.

Plurilock renews contract with U.S. regional bank

Biometrics security firm Plurilock has announced the renewal of a contract with a regional bank based in the Northeastern United States on Friday.

As part of the new agreement, Plurilock will continue to provide the regional bank with its core multi-factor authentication solutions based on behavioral biometrics.

“The renewal of this contract clearly highlights the importance of our MFA products in protecting financial services firms from cyberattacks,” commented Plurilock CEO Ian L. Paterson.

“Our multi-factor and continuous authentication solutions provide companies a leading edge in countering cybersecurity breaches while ensuring the frictionless workflow of their employees and staff, which is crucial for our clients in maintaining high productivity while coping with the alarming rate of cyberattacks that target the financial sector,” Paterson concluded.

Equifax acquires Kount

Analytics and technology firm Equifax has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kount, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven fraud prevention and digital identity solutions provider.

The transaction will cost Equifax $640 million and will help the company expand its worldwide footprint in digital identity and fraud prevention solutions via the Kount Identity Trust Global Network.

The Network can link trust and fraud data signals from 32 billion digital interactions, 17 billion unique devices, and five billion annual transactions across 200 countries and territories.

Since it is powered by AI, the system becomes more predictive as it collects more signals, improving its efficacy in combating fraud.

As part of the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, Kount employees will join the Equifax USIS business unit and will continue to be based in Boise, Idaho.

BioCatch releases behavioral biometrics guidelines

Behavioral insights firm BioCatch has released new guidelines to enable companies to secure their digital experiences using behavioral biometrics.

According to the company, the technology plays a key role in exposing advanced fraud attacks, thanks to its unique insights in capturing human patterns.

The infographic released by BioCatch mentions mouse activity, keystroke movement, touchscreen behaviors, and device movement based on gyroscope movements, orientation, and scrolling.

According to the company, behavioral biometrics is excellent at separating criminal from genuine behavior based on a number of factors.

These would include the level of familiarity with personal data, navigation patterns, and more.

Article Topics

behavioral biometrics  |  BioCatch  |  biometrics  |  Clarkson University  |  continuous authentication  |  digital identity  |  ecommerce  |  Equifax  |  fraud prevention  |  Kount  |  Plurilock  |  secure transactions