DR NIKOLAY GAUBITCH

Dr Nikolay Gaubitch Speaks To Cyber Magazine On The Role Ai Has In Combatting Voice Fraud

From transforming a customer’s call centre experience to reimagining how they interact with smart devices, Pindrop helps people use their voice to connect to, enter, and unlock their world quickly and securely.

As Director of Research, the core of Dr Nikolay Gaubitch’s work is the development of new technologies to push the frontiers of voice security.

“However, I also interact with customers directly, to understand their specific needs and pain points in order to ensure that they get the most out of our technology,” he explains. ”This has given me the unique combination of insight of the fraud and authentication challenges in various industry verticals and an in-depth understanding of the technology that addresses these challenges.”

AI and combatting fraud

When it comes to combatting voice/ telephony fraud, AI has a key role to play.

The perceived anonymity of the voice channel makes it attractive to fraudsters who not only seek to conceal their identity but aim to impersonate that of their victims too. “Where in the past you might have met with your local bank manager, nowadays it is rare for a call centre agent to have any familiarity with callers, making it tempting and easy for a fraudster to step into a customer’s shoes,” Gaubitch says.

“Exploiting telephony requires a lower level of technical expertise than cybercrime targeting online channels. Moreover, call agents are first and foremost focused on providing a positive customer experience to their dozens of callers a day. Their job is not to identify potential fraudsters.

“The clear attraction of the telephony channel for fraudsters has led to the innovative developments of tools that utilise AI and Machine Learning (ML) to rapidly assess the caller’s voice, device, and behaviour, identifying any subtle signs that indicate a potential fraudster.

“The same technology can be used to provide an additional layer of authentication instead of or in addition to traditional questions like KBAs (Knowledge Based Authentication). KBAs don’t actually confirm the caller’s identity, merely that they know the answer to a handful of pre-set questions, such as the street you grew up on or your mother’s maiden name. In today’s digital world, a fraudster can find the answers to these questions relatively easily via social media, for example.”

Pindrop incorporating new technologies

In contrast to machines, humans are not capable of consistently picking up on the unique identifiers distinguishing legitimate calls from fraudulent ones. Not only is this because many of these identifiers are simply inaudible or unrecognisable to the human ear, but the sheer number of calls handled by call centre agents each day makes it a logistic impossibility to accurately vet every single call.

“You can’t make a connection without knowing who someone is, and call centre agents cannot treat every customer as a potential fraudster,” Gaubitch explains. “Therefore, stopping fraudsters in their tracks must not compromise on a meaningful experience between customer and agent, and this is where the role of AI and ML technology becomes imperative. Not only does AI and ML technology help the customer with their authentication process, but it also provides the agent with the assurance that who they are speaking with is a legitimate customer.

“This way the call centre can provide an enhanced customer experience focused entirely on providing a personable, trusting, high-standard service, rather than being on high-alert for signs of deceit.

“As the digital world continues to evolve, it is important to incorporate new technologies to ensure dependable security. For example, recent media attention has highlighted fraudsters honing their skills and capabilities to create increasingly realistic deepfakes and looking to voice synthesis as a potential new technique. Whilst not new, these techniques have historically remained less well-known to the public because of the limited real-word applications available today; however, testament to the news, they will only increase in popularity as they become more convincing. It is therefore vital that businesses be aware of not only these advancing techniques but other potential technologies that criminals can take advantage of, and adopt the appropriate technology to combat them.”

The future of Pindrop

“Pindrop’s mission is to provide security, identity and intelligence on every voice, and as voice comes to play an increasingly larger part in how we interact with technology, this mission will only expand,” comments Gaubitch. “Imagine your daily routine, how many instances can you think of where interaction through voice would make your life easier? A car boot that opened at your command, or a television that recommended age-appropriate shows depending on the person speaking, for example. Voice is not only replacing passwords and PINs, but can start to replace endless other devices with the power of voice identity and voice security, presenting endless new opportunities for businesses and the human beings they serve. The future of Pindrop is all about using voice to open worlds for our customers.”