Voice Authentication: Making Access a Figure of Speech

Computerworld - With tens of thousands of freight customers throughout the U.S., Union Pacific Railroad moves a lot of material. Because of security requirements, Union Pacific follows strict processes to ensure that the customer releasing a rail car after it's unloaded is authorized to do so. In addition to a secure Web application that handles such releases, the rail carrier has added a voice authentication application for users who don't have access to computers—people working in a rail yard or at a shipping dock, for example.
"We need to make sure that the person releasing the car is the person who received it, that the person works for the company, and that it's a valid car number," says Charlie Duckworth, senior director of e-commerce at the Omaha-based company. "It's particularly important when you get into homeland security issues and you're moving hazardous materials."
Using SpeechSecure, from Peabody, Mass.-based ScanSoft Inc., Union Pacific securely authenticates callers and has been able to offload a large percentage of calls that were previously handled by call center representatives.
The growing need to buttress security for access to business-critical systems has many companies looking at voice authentication and other biometric technologies, which can identify individuals based on their unique biological characteristics.
A Sound Technology
Voice authentication captures a person's voice—the physical characteristics of the vocal tract and its harmonic and resonant frequencies—and compares it to a stored voiceprint created during an enrollment process. The technology is generating interest for use in secure applications that involve repeatable actions and where large numbers of people need to be authenticated. These include systems that handle remote network and system access, password reset, time and attendance records and inmate verification, in vertical sectors such as law enforcement, financial services and health care.

"Voice authentication is suited to situations where you have a relationship with the user, where they call repeatedly, and where you're going to decrease costs or increase revenue and user satisfaction," says Samir Nanavati, a partner at International Biometric Group, a consultancy in New York.
However, to realize the expectations that both the public and private sectors have for it, voice authentication must overcome several hurdles. As with any technology that allows access to sensitive systems, there are concerns about whether voice authentication systems can be compromised and whether they remain accurate when environmental conditions aren't ideal. In addition, technologies are still largely proprietary, with few standards in place. And voice authentication, like all biometric technologies, must overcome privacy concerns that arise from the use of biometric data.
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