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Cybersecurity remains a top issue in the business world today. As more and more
businesses move online, particularly in the retail world, it becomes imperative
for consumers to be secure in their transactions. The foundation will be security
with online financial transactions with financial institutions and the authentication
process is crucial.
Have thoughts on more secure transactions? Bank your thoughts on WebProWorld.
But a balance must be maintained. Consumers can be quite fickle based on something
so simple as merely adding another level of difficulty to their online financial
transactions. Whereas banks mustn't worry about this issue as much as others,
that balance between ease of use and customer service friendliness and a genuine
strengthening and improvement of transaction security must be achieved, both for
consumer confidence to protect crucial data.
 Javelin
Strategy and Research just released the first in a two-part study concerning consumer
preferences and online authentication and security for financial institutions.
Some of the findings contained some obvious information but there were a few points
of interest as well.
They tried to address three primary questions with this study. First was "What
security measures do consumers most want to see banks implement?" Next, "Which
authentication solutions resonate with consumers?" and then, "How can banks overcome
the common public misconception surrounding identity fraud?"
The findings revealed some interesting information although not really surprising.
With regard to the first question about consumer preference for security measure,
the number one choice by a long shot was guarantees. 45% of all consumers surveyed
chose a money back guarantee as the best choice for security issues. Javelin data
suggested consumers feel most at ease when banks offer a full guarantee against
fraud losses.
Consumers chose identity insurance and credit monitoring services as the two and
three choices although, really, the numbers were basically tied at about a third
each. Other possibilities also included user defined emails, user selected images
at the website, user defined prohibitions of certain transactions, prohibitions
of embedded Internet links in outbound emails and provide security education.
In their study, Javelin makes a distinction between new account fraud, defines
as using illegally obtained information to open an account in someone else's name
and existing account fraud, defined as stealing money from someone's account.
They said each fraud results in different average loss to the institution, out
of pocket losses and average time to resolved the fraud.
Their research showed that replacing stolen funds from existing accounts is still
the most important with consumers. The research also showed that cleaning up messes
from new accounts is much more difficult for consumers, both in terms of time
spent and average losses.
 The next big question dealt with "Which authentication solutions resonate with
consumers?" The study showed consumers look for a balance between usability and
security with their preferred authentication choices. It's also showing consumers
want something more than external devices - either key chain tokens or USB plugins
or some other web enabled device.
The choices for this portion of the study were: challenge questions, computing
device recognition, fingerprint biometric, smart card or USB token, constantly-changing
PIN token, voice authentication, SMS or phone call w/ pass word, scratch off card
containing one time PN or a web grid using content and pattern recognition together.
The biggest choice, without a doubt was the challenge questions at nearly 60%
followed by computing device recognition. Javelin points out that these two solution
represent utility. They chose simple, easy solutions that don't really require
a change in behavior but consumers also wanted something better than just a username
and password.
They said the one odd choice was for fingerprint biometrics. They hit 29% and
third overall. They suggested that while consumers were comfortable with this
method and recognized the convenience and security associated with a fingerprint
read, they may not have realized the logistical issues involved in equipping all
user machines with fingerprint read capabilities.
Read the Rest of the Article.
About
the Author:
John Stith is a business and technology writer with WebProNews. |
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