Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Incode is an identity solutions company that emphasises privacy via its flagship offering, the Omni platform.
Despite being listed among the ten most visionary and 40 most innovative luminaries shaping financial services, Incode serves not just the financial services industry (FSI), but also hospitality, public sector and more, with self-service, omni-channel and multi-biometric capabilities.
When addressing members of the media in Singapore recently, Jon Andresen, Senior Director of Marketing for Incode opined that identity is the first layer of cybersecurity.
A hand that goes into a cookie jar is no reason to create a fuss unless that hand is not authorised to be there and the cookie jar does not belong to it.
This is the reason strong security strategies for FSI hinge on getting right, compliance to KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements.
KYC is the mandatory process of identifying and verifying a client’s identity when they open an account to confirm that clients are genuinely who they claim to be. This is pivotal for FSIs to be able to prevent fraud, deter financial crime, and mitigate risk of cyberthreats.
This is the reason strong security strategies for FSI hinge on getting right, compliance to KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements.
Especially because of the pandemic and businesses having to turn to online platforms to operate their business and transactions, there has been an undeniable surge in cyberthreats and attacks.
Identity and cybersecurity – protect one, protect the other
Jon said, “The holy grail of cybersecurity is to protect your credentials (ie. User name, password, biometrics, and so on), because your credentials unlock too much else about us (that is on the digital realm).”
Incode proposes being able to do this with accuracy and speed and at a large scale for FSI where KYC is a must, but also for other industry scenarios that require quick identity verification.
He described the current identity challenge as being global because so much of our information assets can be found online and so much financial transactions are being conducted in the digital sphere. Back to the hand in cookie jar example; it’s really about access management and ensuring that the right person is accessing the right set of digital assets with the right credentials.
With artificial intelligence, machine learning technologies, and facial liveness solutions, it is possible to verify the identity of a potential client without the client needing to step into a bank branch. All that is required is a selfie or a quick video call.
Incode proposes being able to do this with accuracy and speed and at a large scale for FSI where KYC is a must, but also for other industry scenarios that require quick identity verification.
“When identity access management is done right, it can create new workflows and business,” Jon said. Because of how much is at stake, the digital world needs a framework for that identity, he also opined.
The pervasive scale use case
According to Jon, Incode’s technology is useful for offline events as well. For example, it was instrumental in helping football-related organisations in Latin America, address ticket fraud and crowd rowdiness.
He said, “If you can match a ticket holder’s identity and validate it through a certain workflow process, you can solve these security challenges.”
This involves having the ticket holder’s identity embedded into the ticket, which is verified when the ticket is scanned. At the same time, the ticket holder’s face is scanned to validate they are who they say they are.
“So we do that, with over 7,000 people going into the football stadium within an hour – we have been able to operate that and at scale. This is a great example of how you can customise identity flows at scale, while also increasing security and seamlessness for the customer to get to their products and service,” Jon concluded.
