Daon, authID.ai, One Identity-linked surveys highlight biometrics opportunities in unified ID

Biometrics are the future of identity assurance because of the digital experience and security benefits the technology conveys, according to an overwhelming majority of executives surveyed for a new report from the CMO Council and Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network. The report’s findings are consistent with a pair of other surveys on enterprise identity security from authID.ai and One Identity.

The new ‘Humanize and Optimize the Way You Recognize Every Customer + Contact’ report was developed in partnership with Daon, and is based on conversations with experts and executives in information security, digital marketing, and customer support, as well as a survey of 2,000 consumers.

The report finds that outdated authentication methods continue to cause customers to abandon digital transactions, while customer-focused organizations are turning to new methods, and biometrics in particular, which consumers prefer.

Other key findings of the report include the increased prioritization of digital identity assurance with businesses since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, siloed and inconsistent authentication processes across different channels of engagement, and that CMOs and Chief Digital Officers feel they have an important role to play in ensuring that friction is reduced in identity assurance.

“This study underscores the critical need for businesses and other enterprises to deploy biometrics to ease the strain and pain of authentication and improve security and privacy for customers,” comments George Skaff, senior vice president of marketing at Daon. “However, the implementation of biometrics as a point solution in isolated digital channels of interaction is not enough. Inconsistent identity assurance processes are creating friction for customers and security gaps within companies. Security and digital experience leaders should look to unify authentication and identity proofing on a single enterprise platform across their mobile, web and customer support channels. Such identity continuity will be critical to the future of digital business.”

The report is a follow-up to October’s ‘Authentication Frustration. How Companies Lose Customers in The Digital Age’ report, which showed biometrics have become the authentication method of choice for far more consumers than passwords.

“Consumers and business leaders agree that identity assurance plays a major role in delivering winning digital customer experiences,” says Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council and BPI Network. “They also agree that biometrics can provide both simplified and better secured authentication. CMOs, CDOs and customer experience leaders need to work closely with security and identity executives to accelerate the adoption of biometrics and advanced back-end systems to deliver greater trust, consistency and ease of use in identity-based processes.”

Fintechs ready for switch to facial authentication

Similarly, a report from authID.ai shows that 84 percent of fintech and banking executives plan to increase their investment in identity authentication and other IT security tools, amid widely-held concerns around identity authentication risk and potential customer dissatisfaction.

One third of respondents are very concerned about customer dissatisfaction with legacy authentication methods like one-time passwords (OTPs) and knowledge-based authentication, and three quarters report being at least ‘moderately concerned.’

Most of the banking and fintech executives polled are familiar with identity authentication based on face biometrics (88 percent), though relatively few people currently use it (22 percent). AuthID.ai found that 70 percent are ‘somewhat’ or ‘highly likely’ to consider switching from OTP and KBA to facial authentication within the next year.

“Fintechs, banks, and credit unions are deeply concerned around not only the risks associated with one- time passwords and knowledge-based authentication, but also about customer abandonment due to the friction associated with these legacy authentication solutions,” states Tom Thimot, CEO of authID.ai. “Cloud-based biometric identity authentication facilitates seamless transactions between customers and businesses of all sizes and industries, while protecting customers’ data, transactions, and online accounts from fraud and other cyber risks.”

Enterprises ready for identity reunification

For enterprises, the top problem may be “identity sprawl,” according to a survey of IT security professionals by One Identity. One in four say the number of identities they manage has increased by ten times or more.

Half of all companies use more than 25 systems for access rights management. Overall, 95 percent find digital identity management challenging.

Just like the CMO Council and BPI Network report, One Identity found that identity security is largely managed in silos, introducing significant complexity and risk.

“Virtually every day we see a new cyber incident make headlines, in large part because organizations are managing more identities than ever before and because they are unable to attain a 360-degree view of all their identities – which creates gaps, inconsistencies, and expands windows of exposure,” explains Bhagwat Swaroop, president and general manager, One Identity. “We’ve seen firsthand that a holistic identity management strategy is a proven way for organizations to optimize visibility, control and protection.”

One Identity acquired OneLogin a month ago to grow the latter’s enterprise Unified Identity Security Platform.

This post was updated at 3:16pm Eastern on November 3, 2021, to clarify that the authID.ai study focusess on executives’ views, rather than those of consumers.

Article Topics

authentication  |  authID  |  biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  cybersecurity  |  Daon  |  digital identity  |  enterprise  |  identity management  |  identity verification  |  One Identity