Cumberland Building Society is incorporating ValidSoft’s Valid authentication solution into a new secure transaction service for its online banking customers. The technology provides two or three factor authentication via phones or text messages to improve security.

The system has fully configurable Out-of-Band behaviour, ranging from simple call acknowledgement all the way through to conversational voice verification, where online customers of Cumberland Building Society will be asked to verify themselves via a memorable name, code and so forth when making online payments. The Valid software from ValidSoft supports landline phones, mobiles, and PDAs with communication via voice telephony or SMS text messages depending upon the specified customer preference.

The managed service installation means there is nothing to provision, download, deploy or support, cutting upfront capital costs for the Society. According to Gary Richardson, assistant general manager of IT at Cumberland, the move follows a successful two month trial period involving 250 internet banking customers. The positive feedback lead to this present installation. “The implementation was smooth and ValidSoft worked very well with the existing provider of our internet banking facility,” he adds.

“We looked at various solutions, including ones based on tokens and SMS alone, but we felt that none really competed with Valid in terms of ease of use and, most importantly, security. One of the positive aspects of the software is that it is able to prevent all the latest malware attacks including ‘Man in the Middle’ and ‘Man in the Browser’ attacks. This was something other technology solutions were unable to achieve and was a deciding factor in our deliberations.”

Share Story: