Advanced electronic signatures
Veridas commissioned the prestigious Spanish law firm ECIJA an independent legal report to analyze and evaluate the level of compliance of its voice biometrics technology as an advanced electronic signature with the requirements of the European Regulation on Electronic Identification and Trust Services (eIDAS), its Implementing Regulation, as well as the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR). Both regulations establish a common legal framework for trust services and electronic identification means in the European Union (eIDAS), as well as the regulatory framework relating to the protection of natural persons about the processing of their data (GDPR).
This report, recently issued by ECIJA, determines that Veridas’ voice biometric technology complies with the technical and legal requirements necessary to perform advanced electronic signatures by users since it complies with the guarantees and adequate security level in electronic identification required by Article 8 of the eIDAS Regulation.
According to this report, after the tests carried out “it is confirmed that the voice recognition system developed by Veridas meets the necessary security requirements to obtain a ‘substantial’ level of security or degree of confidence in the intended identity, by the eIDAS Regulation and the Executive Regulation, since technical controls have been accredited to substantially reduce the risk of misuse and alteration of the identity”.
Independent report by ECIJA
As stated by ECIJA, Veridas’ voice biometrics solution can generate advanced electronic signatures, given that such technology allows, among other aspects, that the signer’s biometric patterns are uniquely linked to the signer in each signature process, thus allowing the signer’s authentication in the signature and/or authentication processes in which it is required.
The Veridas voice biometrics system can be used in a multitude of business processes, such as user authentication processes to securely access and consume services remotely, to sign transactions of all kinds in which it is necessary to guarantee, with a high degree of confidence, the identity of the signer, such as contracting supply services, telecommunications, financial services, etc.
In particular, this system would make it possible to reduce, with a substantial degree of security, the usual cases of identity theft that occur every day in both face-to-face and non-face contracting, since the technology makes it possible to verify the identity or authenticate individuals using their voice, which is unique, unrepeatable and inherent to each person, making it a very secure system that is difficult to forge.
The voice biometrics solution from Veridas
Veridas has developed a voice recognition identification software through which users are identified naturally at the moment they communicate, that is, user verification is performed while the user speaks naturally without requiring the repetition of specific phrases or words.
This technology has been developed to register a person with only 5 seconds of voice, and its subsequent verifications are performed with only 3 seconds of the user’s voice, in any language and with any spoken text. Its verification accuracy reaches 99.9%, and it detects pre-recorded voices to increase security and prevent fraud. All these technological and security features position Veridas voice biometrics as a world-leading solution in authentication time optimization (3 seconds versus 10 seconds for technology companies such as Amazon or Microsoft) and user experience.
The system captures the unique physical characteristics of the voice from an audio recording and compiles them into a unique and irreversible biometric voice vector associated with the user’s ID, resulting in an authentication process comparing the biometric vector associated with the person with the vector resulting from another audio recording, using anti-fraud or anti-spoofing systems that prevent possible identity theft. And, at the same time, guaranteeing the data protection and privacy of the user, who freely decides whether to use this voice recognition and signature system to make any operation more agile. In other words, it is always the user who owns the biometric data who decides whether or not to use a system such as the one proposed.
Evaluated by NIST
This biometric system has been evaluated by organizations such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the U.S. Department of Commerce (NIST), which is the main entity recognized internationally for the evaluation of biometric engines, having placed the Veridas voice recognition system in the top positions of the NIST SRE “CTS Speaker Recognition Challenge1” worldwide ranking or, for example, coming in the second position in the Short-duration Speaker Verification Challenge2 (SdSV) in 2020, which evaluates and accredits the security validity of voice recognition technologies in short-duration scenarios. In addition to speech technology, Veridas also evaluates its facial biometrics technology in the verification (1:1) and identification (1:N) categories, making it the only company in the world to submit proprietary technology in three different NIST categories.
This Veridas voice solution can be integrated in an agile and simple way in a multitude of communication channels of companies and administrations such as contact centers, mobile applications, chatbots, voice bots, messaging platforms, etc. Through the integration of this technology, many companies in sectors as diverse as finance, insurance, telco, or energy, among others, are already managing to significantly reduce their costs associated with the contact center, while improving the customer experience and significantly increasing the security of their identification or signature processes.
Statements
Alonso Hurtado Bueno, partner of ECIJA: “It is always a pleasure to work with the best in innovative technologies, and Veridas is, without any doubt. At ECIJA we are always committed to providing advice aimed at minimizing risks for our clients and the end-users of the technologies owned by companies such as Veridas. We are sure that, with a first-level technology as the one developed by Veridas, and counting with the proper legal advice in the implementation processes, will allow results that will have the total guarantee of regulatory compliance.”
Eduardo Azanza, CEO of Veridas: “This report endorses and reinforces our voice biometrics solution and, above all, our way of developing all Veridas biometric technology, based on privacy by default and by design principles.” Azanza added that “the more than 50 million verifications we have already performed from Veridas, together with the trust of leading companies and institutions in their respective sectors, such as BBVA, Deutsche Telekom or Prosegur, enhance our mission to create a technology that already allows us to move from presumption to certainty in digital processes or transactions.”
Leire Arbona, Legal and Compliance Director at Veridas, has highlighted Veridas’ commitment to regulatory compliance: “European legislation has laid the groundwork for the use of new technologies that facilitate user transactions while ensuring a level of security equivalent or superior to that offered by traditional face-to-face processes. It is now our obligation, as a technology company, to offer solutions that make it possible to put this legal authorization into practice, but always respecting the privacy of users and offering the best guarantees in the operation of the technology”.
