PhoneFactor Offers Three-Factor Authentication Via Voice Biometrics

PhoneFactor is now offering biometric verification for its phone-based authentication platform.

The solution leverages the existing voice channel and verifies users’ telephones and voiceprints as second and third factors of authentication.  Additionally, the solution requires no biometric reader: voiceprints are simply verified during the authentication call.

“We believe that two-factor authentication ("something you know" and "something you have") is certainly quite strong, adding a third factor—"something you are"—gives organizations access to an unprecedented level of authentication strength,” writes Steve Dispensa, CTO of PhoneFactor, in an email to Speech Technology.

“Like a fingerprint, each individual’s voice is unique and has characteristics, such as pitch and rhythm, which can be mapped and used to verify identity,” writes Dispensa. “Each successful authentication actually updates the user’s voice profile, so the system builds up a more and more accurate voiceprint for the user over time.”

According to PhoneFactor, the solution is simple, both for users and IT administrators, requires a low total cost of ownership, and offers strong, reliable biometric verification via the company’s voice mapping model, which uses multiple voiceprint algorithms to keep unauthorized users out and ensure the verification of authorized users regardless of environmental factors.

“Previously, the major drawbacks of biometrics had been cost and convenience—solutions tended to require specialized hardware and software in order to collect biometrics data, which meant that organizations had to distribute hardware to users and users had to have that hardware with them. Because of these problems, biometrics was deployed by very few organizations,” writes Dispensa.

He adds: “The big impact of PhoneFactor's Biometric Voice Authentication service is in making biometric authentication accessible to the incredibly large number of organizations that never had access to it before. We think the service will see adoption across a wide variety of industries and use cases.”

And, according to Dispensa, the reaction to the release has been very positive.

“The product has generated a lot of buzz in the industry already, and the reaction from our prospects has been favorable,” he writes. “We are in discussions with a number of organizations now and expect to see them coming online soon.”