Identity theft is one of the oldest financial fraud techniques and is a growing concern in the current digital age as more and more personal information is being stored and shared online. An increasing rate of spoofing, phishing, social engineering threats, and data breach incidents has facilitated fraudulent access to sensitive personal data. But the customer’s identity such as KYC validated Mobile Number mapped to the device signature is the whole basis of a banking application and ensuring authentic and secure access, is at its foundation. The Banking eco-system identifes the customer account details with respect to the mobile number and device signature.
RBI has mandated the deployment of SIM & Device Binding to avoid the use of stolen identity to gain access to the banking application with an intent of fraud. Through Device & SIM binding, the customer’s identity is correlated with that of their device or the sim card. But the inadequate acknowledgement process currently in practice during the device registration and the lack of anomaly detection in user behaviour are the gaps that generally go unaddressed.
What is SIM Binding?
The mobile Number of the end user plays a vital role in identifying the digital profile of the users. Validating the mobile number is the essence of SIM Binding, If it is not robust enough, the fraudsters can take over the victim’s identity. SIM binding is the process of identifying the sim card parameters and mobile device identifiers to authorize end users to use mobile applications. It validates the authenticity of mobile & SIM parameters with every launch to authenticate a user to access the digital profile. SIM binding helps organizations eventually increase both android app security and iOS app security. Besides, SMS spoofing, at the OTP verification stage, remains an easy gateway for fraudsters to gain access to an individual’s banking application. Also, the constantly evolving social engineering threats cause the leak of crucial verification details.
New age problems need new age solutions:
At protect.ai, we have identified that despite the advancement in rates of spoofing attacks, arming up the gateway with your strongest guard in position can never let a fake identity get access to your application- AppBind. After intensive R&D, we have discovered the leakages in the current system of outgoing SMS validation and developed an advanced device binding mechanism with a comprehensive approach to tackle multiple pain points in the authentication procedure.
We believe in developing innovative and forward-looking solutions to always remain one step ahead in securing your application. Our zero trust principle is based on the philosophy that every step in the authentication and validation process should be re-verified and pass the security check from both the source & destination aspects to ensure authentic access to your application.
AppBind is a blend of our proprietary technologies developed with the zero trust principles in place to bring to you a complex solution that is easy to integrate through our lightweight SDK, Which is empowered with our LSAP (Loopback Short-message Authenticated Phone Number) and 3-Way Hairpin methodology for mobile number verification and MSAP (Multi Short-Message Authenticated Phone Number) for a secure registration that could withstand spoofing threats. AppBind, is a Tech & Platform agnostic, available for both Android and iOS, can be integrated with any framework from native to hybrid.
AppBind is a state-of-the-art solution by protectt.ai, with its comprehensive approach, robust technology, and innovative execution to meet the need of digital transformation today and tomorrow, It can help to eliminate Social Engineering aspects, creates a unique digital identity for every user, strong verification of mobile number, acknowledgement at each layer during registration, and anomaly detection in user behaviour while enhancing the user experience by requiring lesser inputs and unparalleled standards of mobile app security.
Some of the prominent benefits of AppBind are as follows: -
Heightened Multi-Factor Authentication
In addition to passwords, SMS verification, or biometrics, device & sim signatures can be used as a secondary authentication method. Also, it enables mobile number validation, which enhances the digital identity of the user.
● Digital onboarding with mobile number KYC:
Any organization which has got the mobile number of the existing users, can entitle to access the digital platform by validating the presence of same Mobile number to prove the ownership of the mobile number identity.
● Continuous Authentication:
With device binding, administrators can implement continuous authentication against risk-based identity management in industries like Finance and banking, providing regular streams of customer behaviour.
● Passwordless Authentication:
It is possible to remove the need for passwords entirely since SIM binding and mobile authentication provide the most secure method of keeping track of users. Passwords are often the weakest security point in organizations, which can be eliminated with SIM binding and mobile authentication.
● Fraud Reduction:
In conjunction with additional measures such as identity verification, binding can reduce fraud by requiring a physical device for authentication.
Stay protectt-ed!
As written by Mohanraj Selvaraj, Head - Engineering, Protectt.ai