How to protect your business from identity fraud
According to My Verified ID, scammers, hackers and fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are targeting businesses for financial and commercial gain.
While organisations are increasing security measures, My Verified ID says identity verification is still a key weakness that needs to be addressed.
Rodolphe Belin, My Verified ID co-founder and CEO, says, "From employees to the people your business interacts with online, there are many opportunities for fraud.
"In some cases, the business may not even know it's been a victim of fraud until it's too late. Smart phishing attacks use real customer details to access online services, making identity theft difficult to detect and prevent," says Belin.
However, according to My Verified ID, knowing your employees and customer, conducting secure transactions online, moving beyond simple identification and employing identity access management are some steps businesses can take to secure against identity fraud: they can implement systems .
My Verified ID says it's important for businesses to be aware of the fact that, at times, employees arrive with the intent to commit fraud or have a fraudulent history.
Therefore, it is important to verify a potential employee's identity against real-world documents before they are hired.
Similarly, while only financial institutions are required to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) legislation, all businesses would benefit from ensuring they can identify, verify and monitor their customers, says My Verified ID.
"Identity verification technology helps businesses and individuals eliminate fraud, reduce operating costs, prevent criminal activities and increase conversion rates," says My Verified ID, arguing the most effective and trustworthy methods use biometric technology including voice, fingerprint and facial recognition.
Customers and business partners are conducting more transactions online, and in doing so their identity becomes 'hidden behind layers of technology', says to My Verified ID.
However, it's possible to make online transactions secure and legally protected, including official legal documents such as contracts, and other private information, says the provider.
The benefits of doing so include increased employee productivity by removing paper-based documents from all processes, compliance with legislation, and fewer human errors.
As well as making online transactions secure, it is necessary to go beyond simple identification, says My Verified ID.
Many websites ask for simple identification information, making it easy for fraudsters to use other people's identities to commit crimes, but businesses can guard against this by implementing a multi-step verification process, the provider says.
Facial and voice recognition, as well as fingerprints, can be used to confirm that a user is who they say they are, and this type of recognition can also be used to create a digital signature that is legally binding, according to My Verified ID.
The provider says, identity verification technology can attach identities to specific applications, networks and hardware, and can help businesses manage authorisations. It also provides an audit trail so that it is simple to discover who accessed what and when.
