Citibank to Roll Out Voice Biometrics in Australia

According to an October 15, 2010 article in zdnetasia.com, Citibank Australia is planning to roll out voice biometrics for identification to select early adopters.

Citibank Australia CEO Roy Gori stated "I think the next step in the evolution of security is voice biometrics. A person's voiceprint is more accurate than their fingerprint, iris or any other means of identification."

According to Gor, implementing voice biometrics would save Citibank Australia a lot of time and money, because it would cut out the traditional asking of questions for identification. He also stated that the next step after testing is completed is to get people to register and agree to it. Trials began six weeks in August, and early adopters could be using the system by the beginning of 2011.

Voice Biometrics Helps Uncover Terror Plot in Europe

According to an October 5 item from the Associated Press,"the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ deployed voice identification software to help uncover the plot that officials say has targeted Germany, Britain and France." The article goes on to say that voice biometrics has played a role thwarting other terror plots in the past.

Voice biometrics experts believe that the technology has strong potential for streamlining intelligence operations. For example, both the U.S. and British intelligence gather huge amounts of electronic eavesdropping data. Persay's CEO, Almog Aley-Raz offered that "using voice biometrics could allow officials to scan a large number of phone conversations for several suspects' voices."

Voice biometrics may not be perfect (i.e., subject to background noise, etc.) but it has proven to be a valuable tool in the ongoing war on terror.

VoiceVault Offers Voice Biometrics Smartphone Developer Program

A September 8 item on TMCnet.com announced that VoiceVault is now offering a voice biometric Smartphone Developer Program for VoiceVault Enterprise.

According to the article, the program includes several tools and resources that enable developers to design voice biometric-enabled smartphone applications. VoiceVault offers support to various smartphone platforms, including iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

Lee Cottle, Global Executive Vice President at VoiceVault, said that “smartphone users expect robust security and ease of use as a matter of course, and voice biometrics is a key technology to deliver this.” VoiceVault currently offers its VoiceVault Enterprise voice biometric enrollment, authentication, and signature components through 3G or WiFi networks, but has plans to provide an embedded on-device capability as well.