Survey exposes gaps in contact centre ID verification

The study was conducted by Callcentres.net and asked 200 Australians about their attitudes towards various identity verification processes currently used by companies in Australia. The online study was funded by VeCommerce, an application developer and system integrator specialising in speech recognition and voice biometerics.

Based on survey responses, the study indicated a general dissatisfaction with the level of security provided by PIN numbers, passwords or personal history questions. The survey also found increasing customer demand for new identity verification processes, particularly biometric voice identification.

VeCommerce's marketing manager, Martyn Riddle, said the company is open to channel partnerships with telephony vendors and other companies involved in the provision of contact centre hardware.

“We’re talking to other channel organisations who may be providing some of the telephony background, may be providing some of the existing security infrastructure, because you can’t treat any of these technologies in isolation," he said. "VeCommerce has got a very specialised reason for being. We don’t want to get involved in providing token security or enterprise security.”

Dr Catriona Wallace, director of Callcentres.net, said identity fraud and theft is becoming increasingly important to Australian consumers as they demand that their personal data remains secure.

“The results of this study suggest not only for younger consumers, but across all age groups, advanced technology such as biometric voice identification appears to be a viable and preferred option to more traditional methods such as PINs and passwords,” she said.