By Philipp Pointner, Chief Product Officer at Jumio

From crowded stadiums to visiting the local pub with friends, lockdown has meant we can’t come together to watch and celebrate the Rugby Six Nations. Despite this though, the teams have been coming out in full force doing their nations proud. It’s fair to say that rugby wouldn’t be rugby without teamwork, and it’s because of these expertly trained skills on the field that these teams are some of the best in the world.

The same message of teamwork can be applied to other walks of life too, none truer than in online identity verification – a service that has soared over the past year as the world pivoted to a virtual setting. However, this shift has meant that organisations of all kinds have had to seek alternate ways to provide greater assurance of the identity of their online customers, given the sharp rise in new account fraud, identity theft and account takeover fraud (ATO) according to our latest report.

Now more than ever, organisations need to ensure that their customers are who they say they are, but without detrimentally impacting the customer journey. Here, we can look to some of the tactics seen in the Rugby Six Nations.

Starting off on the right foot

When it comes to making the cut for joining a country’s Six Nations team, each and every player is analysed from the start. Factors such as a player’s strength and fitness, past performance results, the ability to make quick decisions and play under high pressure all must be considered. For example, Stuart Hogg was picked for the Scotland team based on his speed, while Maro Itoje is known in the England team for his consistency. Knowing a player from the beginning is much like knowing a customer from the start of the relationship.

As such, businesses should be looking to identity verification platforms that can accurately identify a customer when they come to open an account. The process starts by requiring the customer to capture their government-issued ID (e.g., driver’s license, passport) via their smartphone or webcam and then take a corroborating selfie. During the selfie-taking process, a biometric face template is created to ensure the person behind the ID is the person creating the account. Behind the scenes, the identity verification solution ensures that the ID document is authentic and that the person pictured in the selfie is indeed the picture on the ID.

This is far more sophisticated than traditional authentication and data-based (e.g., credit bureau lookups) methods which provide no accurate way of knowing if a person logging in truly is the user, or if it is someone using readily available stolen information from the dark web. This is also supported by Gartner’s 2020 Market Guide for Identity Proofing and Affirmation that predicts by 2022, 80% of organisations will be using document-centric identity proofing as part of their onboarding workflows, which is an increase from approximately 30% today.

For organisations that deal with higher-risk scenarios, they can look to layer in a number of identity services to increase the level of identity assurance and answer the fundamental questions: is the user who they claim to be online and is it safe to start doing business with them? If the business needs to rely on more than one identity-proofing method, having the ability to intelligently orchestrate across these different capabilities is vital.

The evolution

A championship is never won by one individual player but by a group of players who share a common goal. Each team player has an individual and unique role that sets them apart from one another, but the team is successful only if they come together to work as a unit. The same can be applied for KYC practices – the business needs to be able to switch and draw on new tactics to fight against cybercriminals.

With identity verification, this comes down to having a holistic identity verification platform that can monitor identity-related fraud signals when required. For example, businesses in the financial services space should be looking to leverage platforms that provide automated database pings, including those for address verification and government watchlists PEPs and sanctions to help identify fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) risks faster. More broadly, having access to ongoing authentication solutions will also be key in preventing Account Takeover fraud. This occurs when an opportunistic fraudster seizes control of an online account and then proceeds to make unauthorised transactions with that account. According to Forter’s Fifth Fraud Attack Index, this type of fraud is on the rise, with over a 31% increase YoY.

Heading for the hattrick

Like England’s head coach Eddie Jones, businesses need their own manager too. Identity verification’s answer to this is what’s known as identity orchestration. This allows organisations to sequence and layer in multiple methods of identity proofing services to increase the level of assurance. In fact, Gartner predicts this to become a key area of focus for organisations, stating that by 2023, 75% of organisations will be using a single vendor with strong identity orchestration capabilities and connections to many other third parties for identity proofing and affirmation, which is an increase from fewer than 15% today.

As the pandemic continues to push more organisations to embrace digital, it is imperative that enterprises not only streamline and customise their onboarding processes but also build in the necessary safeguards to protect their ecosystems, reputation and account owners from the increasing online threats.

While forceful tackles may be commonplace on the rugby pitch, cyberattacks are most certainly not welcome in business environments. Like rugby players need to plan out their defence tactics against their opposition, organisations must also take the time to thoroughly consider their onboarding and KYC processes so that they can bring down their harmful counterparts and keep their online community and ecosystem safe and secure. By having a strong identity verification platform in place, organisations can realise their full potential in the online world without the looming threat of fraud and cybercrime.