Social media places traditional identity authentication at risk

Due to the increased amount of personal identifying information available to the public on social media sites, advances in identity authentication need to be made, according to a recent report from Javelin Strategy & Research. The document, the 7th Annual Authentication Report: Weakening of Knowledge-Based Authentication Provides New Opportunities for Customer Acquisition and Retention, discusses authentication methods financial institutions can use to secure banking channels over multiple platforms. It also touches on the decline of knowledge-based authentication. Approximately 4,300 consumers and authentication technology vendors were polled about how banks can use advanced methods to retain customers who are interested in using remote banking channels. The most typical form of identity verification - knowledge-based authentication - is falling out of favor because many consumers' passwords can be tied to information they post on social media sites such as Facebook. Researchers offered insight about additional, more secure methods that approximately two-thirds of respondents were interested in, called biometric authentication. SearchSoftwareQuality reports that United Bankers' Bank in Bloomington, Minnesota, deployed biometric authentication in 2001 and hasn't experienced a security breach since.