Nuance SpeechSecure

Nuance SpeechSecure uses patented biometric technology to verify callers' identities based on characteristics of their specific vocal patterns. It provides added security for callers who need to access personal information over the telephone. From financial services to employee benefits, SpeechSecure enables a host of commercial applications that demand top security without sacrificing caller convenience.

In many industry areas, high levels of security are as important as exceptional customer service (for instance, due to HIPAA regulations in the U.S. healthcare industry). For applications that serve these industries it is likely that—because of the type of information being exchanged—caller identification and verification is critical. SpeechSecure speaker verification is the solution to make your voice services more robust to fraud. SpeechSecure quickly and automatically confirms a caller's identity using the unique characteristics of each customer's voice. This advanced speech technology complements other means of identifying callers, such as using live agents to confirm the account holder's birth date, account balance, or government ID number.

SpeechSecure uses secret pass phrases to deliver the greatest security. Pass phrases are user-chosen phrases, in any language, that the caller must repeat to gain access to information. In this way SpeechSecure doesn't simply calculate voice similarity, it ensures that the caller knows what to say. SpeechSecure is the premium speaker verification solution when you want to offer your customers peace of mind on top of your premium quality customer service application.

Key Benefits

• High Security
  SpeechSecure provides the optimum combination of security and flexibility for user authentication. It supports multiple verification strategies, allowing developers to select their preferred balance between call security and transaction speed. SpeechSecure is now delivered with voice model adaptation where voiceprint models are optimized in deployment using data from successful verifications, enabling the application to adapt to possible changes in users’ voices over long periods of time.
• Flexibility
  SpeechSecure is the most flexible speaker verification solution available. It can be used in IVR systems, with or without speech recognition. SpeechSecure is language independent and does not require a grammar, allowing callers to speak any pass phrase in any language they choose – in fact the pass phrase doesn’t even need to be a real word.
• Choice of Verification Strategies
  SpeechSecure supports multiple verification methods for flexibility, allowing developers to select their preferred balance between call security and transaction speed.
• One-step Verification
  The caller is prompted for a piece of known data (for example, his account number). Speech recognition and verification are performed on the utterance. One-step verification is more convenient than having the user separately identify himself through an account number and then verify his identity through verification of a separate pass phrase. However, because the account number that is uttered is not chosen by the caller - and therefore is not secret - the method is less secure than two-step verification.
• Two-step Verification
  Two-step verification operates on two separate passwords. First the one-step process described above is carried out (i.e. the user speaks her account number, and that is passed through recognition and verification processes). Then the user is prompted for an additional secret password that she has defined. Two-step verification is more secure than one-step verification because the confidence from verification of two separate passwords is better than that from one password, plus the system is testing the caller's knowledge as well as the voiceprint.
• Two-step Verification with Random Challenge
  This is two-step verification where the second password is not defined by the caller, rather it is a random phrase generated by the application or the developer. This could be a random string of digits or one of several enrolled secret phrases. This method usually requires the use of speech recognition in tandem with verification in order to verify that the correct phrase or digit string has been uttered. One potential drawback of the digits approach is that it does not require the caller to know a secret password. However, it does protect the system from so-called tape recorder attacks (where an imposter somehow captures the real user’s password on tape and plays it over the phone) by ensuring that the user is talking live on the phone.
• Text-independent Verification
  Text-dependent speaker verification requires that the same password used for enrollment be used for verification. Text-independent speaker verification places no constraints on the verification utterance and verifies or rejects the caller regardless of what they say or which language they use. Text-independent speaker verification requires more speech data than text-dependent speaker verification. However it requires less cooperation on the behalf of the users, so it is useful for unobtrusive verification of repeat callers.
• Customer Peace of Mind
  Customers are assured that their personal information stays safe when voice services are protected by SpeechSecure.

Nuance Verifier

Nuance Verifier, Nuance's advanced voice authentication software, enables businesses to provide secure access to sensitive information over the telephone. Nuance Verifier voice authentication software creates individual voiceprints to authenticate callers and customers with just their voices, enabling secure access to information. Nuance Verifier can also deliver improved caller satisfaction through convenient access to key automated speech solutions, including financial & retail transactions and account management, personal information access, time management, PIN reset, and benefit access.

Companies today have a wide range of options to choose from for security: touch-tone PINs, agent identification questions (e.g., "What are the last four digits of your social security number?"), pre-chosen passwords and now, voice authentication. Of those options, voice authentication offers the best combination of accuracy, convenience, and cost-effectiveness. This biometric technology captures specific physical characteristics of the human voice, using those characteristics to identify callers, something that other security measures just cannot do. From securing financial transactions to allowing access to private health records, voice authentication takes security to a whole new level - with just a telephone and the human voice.


Key Benefits

• Can increase system automation and cost savings by reducing reliance on live agents to identify customers
• Can increase security of information access, reducing the potential for fraud and identity theft
• Can support with multi-factor authentication schemes, and comply with related regulation (e.g. FFIEC)
• Can improve customer service with a convenient means of security
• Can reduce occurrences of PIN resets, reducing call center costs
• Flexible means of verification for individuals or groups
• Simple maintenance, load balancing and fault tolerance