Since 85% of all U.S. adults used a smartphone, tablet, or laptop last year to interact with businesses, identity-relationship management becomes a critical financial institution mobile-security strategy.
The information group, Experian, released their whitepaper The 3 Pillars of Identity Relationship Management. In it, Experiandetailed how understanding the relationships between identity, mobile devices, and other connected items can enable a more effective, context based risk management strategy at every stage of the customer lifecycle.
“Identity relationship management is not a new concept, but a relatively new approach that Experian is taking to effectively link identity attributes,” said Kolin Whitley, Experian senior director, product management for fraud and identity.
Identity relationship management establishes a continuity of identity confidence from the application stage to the subsequent login attempt to identify related activity. “We are able to gather that intel so clients can make informed decisions at different points in that lifecycle,” Whitley explained.
Whitely said the Experian solution grew out of customer desires to identify people throughout whatever channels and devices chosen. He added, the strategy deployment helps financial institutions, such as credit unions, as well as public sector government agencies where they are looking for that same high level of identity assurance before granting people access to sensitive information.
“In the case of credit unions, there may be a more direct relationship involved in many cases,” Whitley said. An account, for example, may have been opened in person or different information used to book an account. The proof of identity may differ depending on the channel.
Experian looks at identity management in terms of three pillars.
Pillar 1: Identity Proofing
“The goal of identify proofing is to verify that individuals are who they claim to be at a specific point in time,” Whitley noted. Typically, organizations look at it during account opening, profile registrations, and biometric enrollment. “You really need to know that the person is who they claim to be before relying on that credential.”
Common challenges encountered during identity proofing include fraudulent or erroneous consumer supplied data elements, the presence or simultaneous registration of multiple accounts, attempted account creation using synthetic or stolen identities, and incomplete and out-of-date-verification information supplied by the data provider.
Pillar 2: Authentication
Authentication, the ongoing verification of an individual’s identity throughout the customer’s lifecycle, typically takes place during account login, account access and management, and digital transactions.
Obstacles include the inability to flag potential risk associated with any identity elements provided, quickly evaluate customer identify elements and prevent undue friction, monitor legitimate customer behavior and identify behavioral variances, combine accurate identity authentication with reliable device verification, and minimize false positives and negatives.
Pillar 3: Identity Management
Identity management is the behind-the-scenes monitoring of an individual’s identity, performed throughout the customer lifecycle.
One essential component of identity management is recognizing how the passing of time affects both identities and the company’s level of risk. A recent Experian analysis of proprietary identity risk attributes revealed that identities could shift in just 30 days. One reason is through legitimate lifestyle changes. A second, more ominous reason, is through identity compromise.
Whitley described how Experian CrossCore provides a plug-and-play platform for fraud and identity services. With this single, open platform, organizations can connect, access and orchestrate decisions across multiple systems efficiently and effectively. CrossCore connects to multiple systems through a flexible API. This workflow and strategy design capabilities allows organizations to respond to new threats and gain the confidence needed at a transaction level.
