Catching up on a few interesting tech announcements include a new Pindrop voice authentication system, an NXP Semiconductors NFC-enabled Garmin mobile payment wearable and BeyondTrust’s privilege management solution for networks.
Atlanta-based Pindrop announced their proprietary Deep Voice biometric engine, which utilizes the latest deep neural network technology for speaker recognition, to passively identify legitimate and fraudulent callers, solely by voice.
It works with Pindrop Passport a multi-factor authentication solution that passively authenticates callers based on their voice, device and behavior as they naturally engage with a call center. Three core machine learning technologies comprise Passport: Deep Voice biometrics engine, combined with Pindrop’s proprietary Phoneprinting technology and Toneprinting behavioral analytics technology. According to Pindrop Enterprises can reduce call handle times by up to 55 seconds and call center operations costs by up to $1.00 per call, as well as reduce fraud losses and customer churn.
“Our newly patented Deep Voice engine is creating new opportunities for Pindrop as we see voice eating all other interfaces,” Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and co-founder of Pindrop, said. “Establishing trust, security and identity is key to unlocking brand loyalty with consumers. With today’s product expansion we are delivering an end-to-end voice identity platform for enterprises looking to reimagine the customer experience as voice becomes the dominant interface of choice.”
Pindrop’s patented Deep Voice biometrics addresses what it described as shortcomings with the existing systems in the market, such as poor enrollment rates and accuracy exacerbated by short utterances and poor call quality. The Deep Voice engine also brings enterprise grade voice security by detecting new voice attacks such as voice synthesis and distortion and will usher in a new era of enterprise virtual assistants, chatbots and frictionless customer experiences.
San Jose, Calif.-based NXP Semiconductors N.V. announced that Garmin chose NXP’s PN80T embedded Secure Element and Near Field Communications solution for the recently launched vívoactive 3 and Forerunner 645 Music featuring contactless payment capabilities. With NXP’s embedded Secure Element technology and Loader Service provisioning solution, Garmin can deploy Garmin Pay in its products.
NXP said its Loader Service solution simplifies the development and integration of payment functionality while it maintaining significantly lower setup and maintenance costs. Users can add their card information to the Garmin Pay wallet, powered by Fit Pay. Garmin Pay supports Mastercard and Visa debit and credit cards from an increasingly expanding portfolio of issuing financial institutions.
“NXP is recognized as the preferred provider in the payment ecosystem, known for our ability to deliver trusted security, authentication, and end-to-end NFC solutions into many of the world’s most high-profile applications,” Rafael Sotomayor, senior vice president and general manager of secure transactions and identifications at NXP, said.
Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales, said. “This technology, featured on the vívoactive 3 and Forerunner 645 Music, enables customers to leave their cash and credit cards at home and securely make purchases where NFC payments are accepted.”
Phoenix-based BeyondTrust announced a privilege management solution for network, Internet of Things, internet connection sharing, and supervisory control and data acquisition devices. According to Beyond Trust, with PowerBroker for Networks, its customers benefit from end-to-end least privilege faster and with less complexity across nearly all environments, including critical network devices.
The Arizona firm noted its modular design scales to hundreds of thousands of nodes without overburdening the network or administrators with overhead. Organizations can manage large, distributed, and heterogeneous infrastructures. PowerBroker for Networks fully integrates with the central PowerBroker console, enabling customers to benefit from a single policy, management and reporting interface.
“Network devices – such as routers, switches, firewalls, IoT, ICS, and other SCADA devices – are critical for organizations to function, yet present open doors for external attackers and malicious insiders if not properly monitored,” Brad Hibbert, COO, BeyondTrust said. “To improve security on these devices, organizations must have control and visibility over privileged user activity. Since most network devices do not allow for the installation of agents, or are manufacturer-specific, PowerBroker for Networks fills an important gap.”
