Identity proof has been around for thousands of years and is an essential aspect of every significant process. It is critical in banking, legal matters, healthcare, and insurance. Furthermore, given that credit card fraud accounted for 43.7% of identity thefts in 2022 alone, online businesses, in particular, must frequently verify their clients’ identities before completing orders.
A reliable process for verifying a client’s identity can prevent identity theft, fraud, and the loss of assets, as well as impede unauthorized access. In addition, difficulties during onboarding and a poor user experience might irritate not just potential clients but also employees. Therefore, as an increasing number of transactions are carried out online, verifying clients’ identities is becoming an increasingly common practice.
Traditionally, businesses will manually complete the document verification process. This is obviously time-consuming and detrimental to the consumer experience. So many client verification methods must be updated to meet growing demands and regulatory obligations.
Verifying a client's identity has never been easier, as technology has made it possible to automate the tedious tasks and provide a frictionless onboarding experience at a much quicker rate.
Multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an excellent way to make sure that your clients are who they say they are. When your clients try to log in to your company page, they will be asked to provide at least two pieces of evidence from different categories to prove their identity. The categories are something they know, something they have, and something they are.
These categories are used during the sign-on process, and clients should provide their usernames and passwords, which fall under the category of something they know. Then, they provide information about something they have, like a tablet or smartphone, and finally, to complete the category of something they are, clients should provide a fingerprint or retina scan. With multi factor authentication, you can prevent data breaches and give your clients peace of mind.
If one of the categories is compromised, the other two are not, so requiring users to provide extra authentication details using additional factors is a great way to keep everyone protected. The main goal is to achieve the perfect balance between the required security to keep all clients’ sensitive information protected and making the entire authentication process as painless as possible.
Knowledge-based authentication
Knowledge-based authentication (KBA) is one of the oldest methods of authentication used by companies. With it, you can verify the client’s identity by requiring answers to a series of security questions. The main goal of these questions is to make sure that the users answer them easily, but everyone else has difficulty doing so. These are simple questions like, “What is your best friend's father’s name?” or “What is your favorite city?” among many others.
Another safety requirement of this authentication type is to answer these questions within a limited time. This method is widely used because it allows clients to choose the questions themselves, making them more personal and much easier to answer.
Single-factor authentication
Single-factor authentication is a process where users provide only one piece of evidence to prove their identity. The information required can range from a knowledge factor, such as a password, to a biometric element, such as a fingerprint. In fact, fingerprints are one of the safest methods because they are almost impossible to fake. When users provide their information, the online source compares the provided information with the already available information stored in the system. If the data matches, the users will be granted access; if not, they will be denied.
Online verification
Online verification is used to determine if the government-issued ID documents belong to the users connecting to the company system. It is implemented with techniques like artificial intelligence, human review, and computer vision.
When clients try to log in to the company website, they should upload a picture of them holding their ID, proving that the person holding the ID and the person on the ID are the same. The documents can be analyzed instantly and provide 100% proof of authentication. This is one of the most secure ways to check the client’s identity.
Final thoughts
Keeping both your company and loyal customers protected should be your number one priority. Therefore, by implementing strong client authentication systems, you will quickly check your client’s identity and, at the same time, protect their data and your company from any possible data breaches. This is the best way to avoid identity theft and improve your clients’ experience when visiting your company’s page.
