National Australia Bank has announced it is considering
three-factor authentication for internet and mobile phone
banking.
The bank hopes to leapfrog competitors by adding an extra level
of security to the standard
two-factor authentication offered by its rivals, according to
local reports.
According to the bank, the infrastructure is in place to use
voiceprints to authenticate users. This follows the installation of
voice authentication technology in its call centres in June.
Most UK banks use two-factor authentication, which improves on
passwords by requiring customers to authenticate themselves using
one time password.
But in March, law enforcement officials and IT security
professionals heard at the
eCrime Congress 2009 that two factor authentication is not as
secure as was first thought.
Multi-factor authentication is an important element to defending
against rapidly evolving cybercriminal attacks, according to
a report from the anti-fraud command centre (AFCC) of RSA, the
security division of EMC, published in June.