‘Cybercrime keeps Climbing’. This was one of the principal findings from PwC’s Global Economic Crime Survey 2016, and a reminder that many businesses are unprepared for -or do not understand- the security threats of the digital age. Surveying various businesses, PwC’s report found that many companies have already suffered severe economic loss as a result of cybercrime; approximately 50 organisations they surveyed incurred losses of more than $5 million, and of these, a third reported losses of more than $100 million.
If optimising security depends on creating systems and procedures that people can easily use, then to some extent, the lack of security understanding reflects the huge variation in the populations’ willingness to adopt new technologies. In the Aite Group’s, recently published research on authentication preferences, they found that seniors are relatively resistant to using new authentication methods (only 16% very willing to adopt new authentication methods), whilst millennials are much more willing to switch from passwords to another identification method (48% very willing to adopt new authentication methods and a further 47 % somewhat willing to adopt new authentication methods).
According to Aite Group Research Director Julie Conroy, “Financial institutions must take into account the stark differences in preferences and understanding among the age groups when plotting their authentication strategy and education program.” Alternatively, financial institutions may seek to invest in an authentication technology that appeals to as many people as possible.
In this respect, Mobile Connect, the operator-led identity solution, has the potential to appeal to a very broad demographic. The solution enables users to authenticate in various ways, but principally by prompting the user with a simple PIN request on their mobile phone. Most importantly, it is rooted in mobile technology, something which is widely used by all generations across the globe.
As reported in Mashable last week by Manish Singh, with over 3 billion enabled users and supported by 51 operators in 29 countries, Mobile Connect is the ‘big competition on the horizon’ for existing high profile login solutions.
According to Lujo Bauer, Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, what’s particularly worrisome about current big brand single-sign-on solutions is that many users are likely to forget that by using such logins they’re telling the provider which sites they’re logging into and how often. The issue of trust was underscored in Mashable’s interview with Ant Allan, Research VP at Gartner, who claimed that because Mobile Connect is being developed by the GSMA, a big trade body that works with telecom operators, it is more trustworthy in the eyes of the governments.
Indeed, governments are increasingly looking to employ national identity schemes and are actively examining technology to support them. Acuity Market Intelligence forecast that investment in national electronic ID programmes across the globe will rise substantially in the next few years, exceeding $54 billion in revenues between 2016 to 2021. According to Acuity Market Intelligence’s Maxine Most, “Growth of chip-based national eID programs is creating a foundation for national, regional, and ultimately global trusted authentication infrastructures that will drive expansion of eGovernment services and integration of commercial services like banking and payments…Then the longer-term evolution of National eIDs will be an evolution towards mobility.
Physical credentials will be augmented, then replaced, by digital credentials stored in smartphones and other mobile devices, transforming the way identity is established, referenced, and used every day across the globe.”
Several governments across the globe are actively testing how Mobile Connect can provide access to a new wave of public sector digital services. The identity solution has a variety public sector use cases including, taxes, healthcare and payments. To find out more about Mobile Connect, please visit mobileconnect.io