Passwords don’t work. If there is one thing I’ve learned after 25 years of working across cyber security technology, it is this. If passwords had been the solution to protecting privacy, we would not be met with headlines covering data breaches, ransomware and fraud scams every day. So why are we still relying on them?
Over the last 6 decades technology has progressed farther than we ever could have dreamed, and yet reality doesn’t look like we imagined. Gone are the days of needing to go to the bank to cash your check, check your account balance, transfer funds. Now, stock is traded by the push of a button, authentications are digital, and bank statements are delivered via email or portals. Despite these advances, and our reliance on technology to manage our finances, service contracts and entertainment subscriptions, we find ourselves in a constant loop of passwords, multi-step authentications and identify verifications—all to simply check our balance, pay a bill or watch the 5th season of Cobra Kai with our tween-agers.
We’ve reached an inflection point at the intersection of humans and technology. It has become such a part of our lives that many of us can’t remember living without it. But technology isn’t centered around the human, we as humans have become centered around the need of technology. Most recently with DTEX Systems, we flipped this model and awoke the industry to the need to put humans at the center of cyber-security strategies. After all, they are the only constant and most unique signal there is. We solved for human intent, malicious and negligent behaviors, and compromised identities to protect against organizational data loss because the friction caused by first-generation DLP and IRM technology to use data and do our jobs as employees became counter-productive to our day-to-day responsibilities and effectiveness.
Similarly, the friction to access the personal data we share with and entrusted to the organizations we rely on for banking, telecommunications, and more has become almost unbearable. Security and privacy are important, but at what cost to our personal time and emotional wellbeing? It is time to change the way we interact with technology to manage the services that have become necessary elements of our lives. Security should be personal, in an age where so much information is easily found online, we must move beyond static, fraud vulnerable mechanisms, and take away the ability for a criminal to pretend to be us. Fraud protection should be simple, frictionless, and ironclad; tied to who you are, how you behave and not a version of your daughter’s birthday or favorite word with three exclamations after it.
The one thing each of us owns, completely, is how we behave and our intention to use technology. A person’s behavior is a product of their entire life, every experience, it is a compilation of who someone is. Behavior defines a person’s intent and paints a picture into how, when, where, and why they act. The sequences, speed, and timing are uniquely ours. I joined the team at BioCatch for the opportunity to leverage human behavior to solve everyday problems using a person’s unique attributes. In a world where cybercriminals are continually a step ahead, behavior gives the power back to the people, offering protections not possible through traditional fraud controls.
I am humbled to be joining BioCatch at such an important and exciting time. We have the technology, people, knowledge and innovation engine to harmonize how humans interact with technology. In turn, we are able to develop technology that both delights and secures human identities. When you understand the depth and potential of behavioral data, the excitement and possibilities are excitingly overwhelming. Keep your eye on us, the future is bright.
