Opus Research is pleased to announce Voice Biometrics Conference London 2008 -- the industry's only global gathering featuring case studies, in-depth session discussions and independent vendor analysis.
Advisories
Opus Research Advisories examine issues pertaining to technology developments and narrow application domains in voice biometrics. Advisories are about 1000 words in length, and include relevant data and graphics.
Voice Signatures Finding Favor For Mobile Payment Authorization
July 2nd, 2008 | Dan Miller
Mass acceptance of Voice Signatures as valid proof of identity for mobile commerce is on the horizon. It reflects successful integration of biometric engines with pre-existing, established standards for authentication and non-repudiation in the context of mobile payments leveraging lessons learned and standards in place for card processing.
SoundAccess Marks Acxiom’s Entry into Voice Authentication
December 20th, 2007 | Dan Miller
It is good news for the voice authentication community when a billion-dollar leader in the customer data integration industry adds voice biometrics to its product line. With Acxiom joining VoiceVerified to offer the SoundAccess caller authentication, a significant presence in data integration for financial services companies joins the voice authentication community.
Securing the Future of Voice Biometrics
December 4th, 2007 | Dan Miller
With more than 150 people in attendance at Voice Biometrics Conference London, Nov. 28-29, top vendors and implementers of voice biometric-based authentication and identification solutions defined future products, services and positioning. Recent security breaches militate toward broader deployment of voice biometrics, as does the growth of mobile commerce. Thus, the dialogue will continue between buyers, prospects and solutions providers.
WellPoint Simplifies Opening New Accounts with Voice Signature
October 24th, 2007 | Dan Miller
WellPoint's use of a voice-biometric based e-signature to issue new policies portends future deployments that balance convenience, security and cost in the healthcare vertical. The largest health benefits company in the U.S. perceives voice biometrics as a source of competitive advantage. It has used the system to enroll over 140,000 new policyholders.
IBM Makes Speaker Identity Verification Part of WebSphere
July 31st, 2007 | Dan Miller
IBM brings conversational speaker verification close to "off-the-shelf" status by making it a "feature pack" for WebSphere middleware. Speaker-independent, text-independent and language-independent verification overcomes many obstacles to adoption and has the potential to create a secure and pleasant user experience.
Voice Biometrics Conference Takes on Growth and Challenges
May 7th, 2007 | Dan Miller
High-profile implementations, like VoicePay (in the U.K.) and Bell Canada's Voice Identification Service, signal a new era for voice biometrics technologies. Success in the near term is pegged on high levels of convenience and security for customer-facing applications. Long-term success will be linked to establishing spoken passwords as a highly trusted way to leverage existing infrastructure for securing Web-, mobile- and phone-based commerce.
View from RSA 2007: Voice Biometrics Have Much to Prove
February 12th, 2007 | Dan Miller
Attending this year's RSA Conference gave us the chance to gauge the security community's perception and acceptance of voice biometrics. Bottom line: Security officers and solution vendors remain skeptical of speaker verification as a strong authentication solution. It's up to the vendor community to connect-the-dots for security advocates by making it clear that biometrics figure into security solutions and, where phones are concerned, voice biometrics fit the bill.
Looming FFIEC Deadline Sparks Interest in Voice Biometrics
November 20th, 2006 | Dan Miller
December 31, 2006 marks the deadline for compliance to guidelines established by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) for authenticating users of online banking services. While the guidelines focus on Internet-based commerce, banks must offer consistency and ease-of-use across multiple media. Voice biometrics has a major role to play as an authentication factor for multiple touch points.
RSA Adapts Vocent Product Line
November 3rd, 2006 | Dan Miller
RSA Security's Adaptive Authentication for Phone furthers voice authentication's foray into high-volume, customer-facing deployments. It makes good on RSA's promise to incorporate Vocent's framework (acquired via the PassMark Security acquisition) and Nuance's biometric engine into its core offerings. Timing is driven, at least in the U.S., by a regulatory mandate for 'two-factor' authentication. Demand "pull" is expected to follow.
Voice Authentication Baked into Aeroplan's Customer Care
August 4th, 2006 | Dan Miller
Aeroplan, the loyalty program administrator that separated itself from AirCanada, has completed 'Phase 1' in rolling out a hosted voice self-service (VSS) application that includes conversational authentication of a caller's identity based on comparison of spoken words with a stored voiceprint. The first time a member calls the program's toll-free number they are asked to register for voice authentication. To initiate subsequent calls, members are asked to verify their identities in order to do such things as check their mileage balance, change address information or log flight miles after the fact. Voiceprints are designed to take the place of personal identification numbers and simplify the log-in process.
Architectural Execution: Medium-High
Market Value: High
Ecosystem Implications: Medium
Analyst: Dan Miller
BT Adds Voice Biometrics to its 21st Century Network
February 8th, 2006 | Avery Glasser
As the poster child for the forced march to Next-Generation Networks (NGN), British Telecom has an evangelical role to play in defining worldwide business-grade services. Incorporating its URU identity management and voice biometric user-authentication service into its 21st Century Network (21CN) was expected. Extending its 'in-network' authentication for use in phone-based banking, shopping and other e-business will have far-reaching implications.
Architectural Execution: High
Market Value: High
Ecosystem Implications: Medium
Analyst: Avery Glasser
VOICE.TRUST Earns Common Criteria Certification
July 22nd, 2005 | Avery Glasser
On June 20, 2005, TÜViT (the IT branch of the venerated German standards and testing firm TÜV) updated its 'certifications' page to recognize the first grant of a Common Criteria Certification for a voice biometrics solution. VOICE.TRUST AG of Munich, Germany, is now the first and sole provider of an internationally certified speaker verification system for enterprises and carriers. Earning the 'Common Criteria' certification takes years to implement and requires a significant amount of money for testing and certification. Achieving an Evaluation Acceptance Level of 2, proves that Speaker Verification is a legitimate, and sometimes superior, alternative to other methods of access management.
Architectural Execution: Medium
Market Value: Medium/High
Ecosystem Implications: Medium
