Mobile commerce solutions provider Sionic Mobile has partnered with AuthenticID to incorporate the latter’s technology into its own offerings, heraldonline.com reports. The partnership will see AuthenticID’s catfishAir biometric authentication technology integrated into Sionic Mobile’s Shop2Give and ION Rewards apps.
The technology uses facial recognition to identify users based on their driver’s licence photos. They simply use their mobile phones’ cameras to scan their IDs, and then take a selfie. The system’s cloud software takes over from there, matching the images against each other to confirm identity. In these apps’ cases, the purpose will be to secure mobile payment transactions. Speaking on the partnership, Sionic Mobile CEO Ronald Herman cited “the growing number of attacks from increasingly sophisticated fraudsters” as the reason “that security remains the number one cited reason consumers are reluctant to use mobile payments to complete purchases,” while AuthenticID CEO Blair Cohen cited a recent survey indicating “that 32 percent of merchants believe fraud prevention specific to mobile is necessary, and view mobile as riskier than standard e-commerce transactions.” The companies’ integrated solution would be a decisive security measure allaying those fears, they suggested.
They are certainly right about the seriousness of the issue. Financial transactions are increasingly taking place on mobile devices, and with that shift come new security vulnerabilities. Industry experts such as those in the FIDO Alliance have recognized the need for more advanced security measures and many point to biometric technology as a key factor in such efforts. Indeed, much of Apple’s success in promoting its Apple Pay mCommerce platform could be attributed to the company’s implementation of fingerprint scanners on all of its new mobile devices.
Follow Us