Fooling a biometric voice lock by copying clips of an authorized user’s speech has become a trope in spy movies these days. We the viewers see that voice activated lock show up, and we instantly know to expect a montage of some audio genius capturing clips of the authorized user saying sentences, then splicing them together into the passcode.
But thanks to the work of vocal biometric firm SpeechPro, the North American arm of the Speech Technology Center, we can now expect a plot twist. In February, the forensics and security experts at SpeechPro released VoiceKey.OnePass, a dual verification system that takes a photo of the user as they say the authentication phrase. The camera of a security system or even a mobile device captures the movement of the user’s lips as they form the words, and SpeechPro claims it can’t be fooled by a photo. Take that, screenwriters; now you’ll have to find a way for the criminals to get the users face too.
Things like this are part of SpeechPro’s commitment to innovation and discovering new answers to ever evolving security issues. In marketing materials SpeechPro proudly touts their staff of 150 research and development specialists, nearly one-third of their workforce.
While forensic and law enforcement applications have long been their focus the growing emphasis on security led SpeechPro to expand to enterprise services. Most recently, companies using Avaya systems may be pleased to know they can now access VoiceKey, one of SpeechPros’s solutions for call recording and analysis, through the DevConnect (News - Alert) MarketPlace. For a call center VoiceKey provides an extra layer of security against fraudulent account access, always a concern with phone transactions.
In an interview earlier this year, SpeechPro President Alexy Khitrov explained the idea behind VoiceKey, “It utilizes a technology of text-independent voice verification. In this opt-in system the customer has agreed to be verified by voice biometrics and the next time a customer calls the call center, the agent would see a notification on the screen and continuously throughout the conversation would be getting a confidence score that the agent is talking to the right customer. Without any use of passwords, without any effort from the user whatsoever the identity of the user will be continuously confirmed for the agent so the change of information or the transaction in this environment can be absolutely secure. And to make it even more secure we have a feature that detects a speaker change, so if the speaker at the other end of the line changes the agent would be notified.”
Since everyone is frustrated about keeping up with passwords and PIN codes callers already used to hearing that a call is being recorded could be thrilled at this new security option.
VoiceKey is available and verified to work with Avaya (News - Alert) AuraExperience Portal 6.0 and Avaya Aura Communication Manager 6.3. systems thanks to the new third-party development portal Avaya set up and dubbed DevConnect. In shades of Apple’s (News - Alert) AppStore, partner companies can develop solutions, have them tested by Avaya for interoperability and sold as preapproved partner solutions.
Edited by Alisen Downey