OneSpan
Machine Learning-Driven Fraud Mitigation

Before the Internet, customers who wanted to perform a bank transaction had only one option—a visit to their local branch for a face-to-face transaction. Now, in the “mobile age,” customers expect that their bank provide secure and easy access to the full suite of banking services via their mobile device. To satisfy the demand for internet-enabled banking, financial institutions have evolved their online presence from merely providing access to account balances, to full-service banking. Unfortunately, as financial institutions increased the breadth of online services, they attracted even greater attention from cybercriminals. When banks and credit unions fail to deploy a robust online authentication process, fraud follows, and often on an organized scale. The availability of transparent, risk-based online authentication tools, such as behavioral biometrics, then, comes at a critical time. Enter OneSpan. Through its risk analytics, mobile application shielding, and multi-factor authentication solutions, the company achieve the twin goals of mitigating fraud and supporting growth. “We listened closely to the challenges our customers are facing and identified a significant gap between customer needs and solutions available in the market. OneSpan is addressing this gap by delivering a much needed and innovative approach to reducing the billions of dollars banks are losing annually to fraud,” says Scott Clements, the CEO and President of OneSpan.

"Secure Agreement Automation represents the fulfilment of OneSpan’s promise to help financial institutions reduce costs and increase growth by establishing trusted identities, devices, and transactions throughout the customer journey"

OneSpan Risk Analytics provides financial institutions with the ability to proactively detect signs of an account takeover before it affects users. The solution continuously analyzes and scores numerous data points in real time across digital channels to create a full picture of user actions (before, during, and after the session). Leveraging machine learning, the risk analytics engine can spot anomalies in user behavior and take appropriate action based on the transaction’s risk level. “At OneSpan, we understand the complexity of account takeover fraud and provide the risk-based, intelligent analytics to fight it—in a way that is invisible to users. Our approach to fraud prevention encompasses: intelligent authentication methods, risk-based analytics, Cronto, and a mobile security suite to protect your customers’ digital journeys,” states Clements.

Proactive Fraud Detection

Risk Analytics detects certain combinations of signals in the user, device, and transactional data, which can provide indicators that customers are under attack. It can also provide an overview of customer actions to help identify suspicious combinations of events. Thanks to these capabilities, Risk Analytics is also an important security layer in the detection of SIM swapping attacks. It collects behavioral biometrics data and other risk-based parameters, such as geolocation, time of the day, or the number of total requests for reactivation. A spike in such requests could be a sign of a SIM swapping attack. OneSpan Risk Analytics helps identify indicators of an account takeover attack. It provides an overview of all users and actions; this data can help detect a new attack vector targeting customers.

OneSpan is addressing the gap by delivering a much needed and innovative approach to reducing the billions of dollars banks are losing annually to fraud

Risk Analytics helps to detect known and emerging fraud scenarios, which is crucial considering the ever-increasing variety and volume of account takeover attacks. For example, by analyzing the http referrer, the solution can indicate the probability of a phishing attack that can lead to an account takeover.

OneSpan Risk Analytics works in the background, collecting and scoring activities in real time based on a detailed analysis of user behavior, transaction details, and other key contextual data across multiple digital channels. It proactively protects against fraudulent activities by identifying risk at critical steps, predicting risk levels, and taking action when suspicious activities are identified. The solution leverages machine learning and sophisticated data mining and modeling to gain the most accurate predictions of risk and fraud. It collects vast amounts of data from multiple sources and digital channels to ensure the most accurate risk score. These scores drive intelligent workflows that trigger immediate action based on pre-defined and/or bankdefined security policies and rules. The combination of intelligent automation and risk scores streamlines processes, reduces operational costs tied to manual review, and ultimately improves the user experience through fewer false positives.

Protecting the Device and the Banking Session

OneSpan delivers risk analytics through its Mobile Security Suite. This provides financial institutions the ability to gain visibility into risks in the mobile channel. The solution applies a 360° approach to mobile security, taking into account factors such as the app, device, interface, communications, storage, and users. It can detect risk factors related to the user’s device and apply countermeasures. With app shielding and runtime protection, it is able to provide advanced protection against overlay attacks, key loggers, and other malicious technologies. For example, OneSpan App Shielding has a built-in mechanism to detect if an app is put into the background state, which together with other criteria can help determine whether an overlay attack is in progress. The Mobile Security Suite can also identify risk factors such as a jailbroken or rooted device—and still maintain a secure environment for the app to operate in. This enables customers with a higher device risk profile to continue to benefit from mobile banking. The Mobile Security Suite includes encrypted, secure communication channels as well as secure storage to prevent eavesdropping. In addition, FIs can implement flexible authentication scenarios with fingerprint, face, behavioral biometrics, and more.

At its core, the Mobile Security Suite is supported by OneSpan’s unique, patented Cronto^® visual transaction signing solution helps protect customers from social engineering and Man-in-the-Middle attacks that lead to account takeover. Cronto technology displays a unique visual challenge that contains the transaction details. A bad actor cannot modify the contents of the transaction since the cryptogram is uniquely connected to the transaction details. Any change will invalidate the code.

This creates a secure virtual channel between the FI and the legitimate account holder, preventing a MitM scenario.

Flexible, Dynamic Authentication

On top of the Mobile Security Suite, OneSpan also delivers a fourth layer of protection through a customer authentication function. The company’s Intelligent Adaptive Authentication (IAA) solution provides the precise level of security at the right time for each transaction, based on real-time risk analysis of user, device, and transaction data. Every authentication journey is different— that’s why the solution evaluates all user actions case by case to determine the most suitable authentication method(s) based on the level of risk. Tailoring the authentication flow to each unique transaction makes it more difficult for fraudsters to predict and plan their attacks. This unpredictability thwarts a fraudster’s attempt to turn a fast profit with minimum effort. This level of risk-based intelligence also ensures the best possible customer experience.

From the user’s perspective, the usual actions will be seamless; they will not be bothered with cumbersome authentication methods for low risk transactions. The solution will introduce the right level of friction into the authentication process in order to protect customers’ money. This deep analysis never interrupts the user experience unless it’s necessary. Instead, users are only impacted when IAA determines that the level of risk and propensity for fraud justify it. Unlike most fraud tools, IAA ensures the best possible experience for every unique transaction.

The Future through Secure Agreement Automation Solution

What really has differentiated OneSpan over the years in the their constant push towards innovation. In the same quest, the company has recently launched its Secure Agreement Automation cloud solution which offers fully-digital account opening while fighting application fraud. Launched this week, the technology leverages open APIs to deliver identity verification, eSignature, workflow, and an end-to-end audit trail in a single account opening solution. “The battle for banking consumers is being waged based on the quality of the digital experience, which demands both ease of use to reduce abandonment rates and strong security to lessen account fraud,” mentions Clements. “Secure Agreement Automation represents the fulfilment of OneSpan’s promise to help financial institutions reduce costs and increase growth by establishing trusted identities, devices, and transactions throughout the customer journey.”

The cloud-based solution automates new customer acquisition, identifying qualified customers by running applications through its identity verification hub. This hub relies on credit checks, multifactor authentication, and biometric tools like facial recognition to limit false positives and customer abandonment. The connection to OneSpan’s Trusted Identity (TID) platform means FIs can add capabilities like risk analytics and intelligent adaptive authentication.

With 10,000+ customers, including more than half of the top 100 global banks, OneSpan rebranded from VASCO back in May of last year. As VASCO, the company participated in FinovateFall 2017, demoing digital lending and document management technology from its recent acquisition eSignLive. Last month, OneSpan picked up the 2019 Global Customer Value Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan for its Intelligent Adaptive Authentication solution. Also in May, the company announced that the largest community bank in the Washington, D.C. metro area, EagleBank, had deployed OneSpan’s mobile authentication technology. Other 2019 partnerships for the company include collaborations with United Bulgarian Bank and cloud portal ezidox.