Cisco Finesse authentication

Industry: Financial Services Region: EMEA Technology: UC/Customer Care

81% of data breaches involve the use of stolen or weak credentials

Verizon. Data Breach Investigation Report

Thinking aheadLooking to further prevent fraudulent activity, a major Middle Eastern bank took proactive measures and consulted Cisco on how it could introduce another layer of security into its customer support phone system.After uncovering the customer’s current processes, requirements, and needs, Cisco’s CADI team introduced the Cisco Finesse® Authenticator solution to help the customer increase its security levels.In short, the Finesse Authenticator prompts the bank’s customer (caller) to enter a PIN number before any requests are heard in order to verify the caller’s identity. Certain precautions are of course taken, notably that the Finesse Authenticator transfers the customer to an interactive voice response (IVR) system to enter their PIN so that no one can listen to the call or detect the keys pressed.Trust the processHere’s how the Finesse Authenticator works:

Once a caller connects to an agent from an inbound or outbound call, a dashboard web page opens immediately for the agent. There, the authentication buttons get enabled for the agent.

The agent then presses “Verify Password” to transfer the caller to the authentication IVR as the agent remains on the line, but is put on hold.

Here, the caller can enter a PIN number securely without the agent, or anyone else, detecting the pressed keys

Once the caller has entered the correct authentication code, the call will automatically notify the agent and remove the on- hold status so that the call can proceed.

The main benefit to both parties is that there are less fraudulent transactions. This simultaneously lowers OpEx costs for the bank and increases customer satisfaction with more happy customers.