New Visa Platform Curates Security Solutions, Starting with Document Reading and Biometrics
Visa is launching a new authentication solutions platform for its partners, and Daon is providing its biometric capabilities.
The platform, Visa ID Intelligence, is aimed at offering merchants, issuers, and the like a suite of solutions to help them verify the identities of the consumers they serve. It’s offered in the form of developer tools like APIs and SDKs through the Visa Developer Program; and straight out of the gate, it features support for document recognition technology that can match an individual’s photo to that of an accompanying passport, driver’s license, and so on, thanks in part to identity document processing technology from Cyprus-based AU10TIX.
It also features tools for mobile biometric authentication based on eye, face, fingerprint, or voice recognition. And that functionality comes by way of Daon and its IdentityX platform, which has been embraced by a wide range of organizations – particularly in the financial services market – including the world’s other major credit card firm, Mastercard, with its Identity Check security system. But its use in the Visa ID Intelligence could dramatically extend its reach to a broader range of end users.
In a statement announcing its new authentication solutions platform, Visa cited its own recent survey data indicating that 69 percent of American consumers think biometrics offer an easier solution for confirming payments than passwords, with Risk and Authentication Products SVP Mark Nelsen asserting that “traditional methods for authenticating a customer can create frustration or are simply not designed for the new ways people are shopping and paying.” Visa ID Intelligence should go some way toward addressing that issue, but it may also hint at a future of even more seamless and convenient authentication, given the company’s long-term ambition of moving toward “ambient authentication” based on things like how users interact with their phones’ touchscreens or how often they charge their devices, in addition to biometrics and other authentication factors.
With its promotion of mobile biometrics, Visa ID Intelligence can be seen as a step in that direction, and Visa is already planning more. The company says that in 2018 the platform’s capabilities will further expand to enable the analysis of “user data and device data” for authentication, and to that end Visa will be working with Neustar and ThreatMetrix, two specialists in these areas.
For now, though, the biometric and ID reading capabilities of the platform should prove highly appealing to Visa’s partners as payments and financial services increasingly go digital, and as businesses and consumers alike grow increasingly aware of threats to data security in the wake of major breaches like the Equifax hack. With such a high-profile organization as Visa essentially offering to curate security solutions for the broader ecosystem, many merchants and business leaders will suddenly become aware of apt security solutions recommended by a brand they rely upon and trust.
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October 19, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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