Banks, telcos urged to strengthen biometric verification

Banks and telecommunications companies have been urged to replace traditional security measures such as one-time passwords (OTPs) and passwords with stronger biometric verification systems to curb the growing threat of cybercrime. Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos, Jesus Aragon, Chief Executive Officer of Identy.io, warned that the rapid rise of liveness attacks and deepfakes […]

Banks and telecommunications companies have been urged to replace traditional security measures such as one-time passwords (OTPs) and passwords with stronger biometric verification systems to curb the growing threat of cybercrime.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos, Jesus Aragon, Chief Executive Officer of Identy.io, warned that the rapid rise of liveness attacks and deepfakes poses a serious risk to the digital banking ecosystem.

“We are discussing how transactions can be secured on mobile devices while protecting users from liveness attacks.

Criminals are trying to break systems with photocopies, screen images, masks, and now deepfakes,” he said.

“Everyone is talking about deepfakes. If you go on LinkedIn today, people are posting videos and it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell what is real and what is fake.”

Aragon said his company has developed a multi-factor biometric solution designed to strengthen privacy architecture and enhance identity verification security.

According to him, combining facial recognition with fingerprint authentication creates a more robust defence against fraud.

“We believe multi-factor authentication is the answer. Producing deepfakes for facial recognition may be easier, but fingerprints are a different matter. You do not have my fingerprints on Facebook, so replicating them is far more difficult,” he said.

He noted that such solutions can help customers authenticate transactions securely from their homes or via mobile phones while also improving convenience.

“You are helping the user to transact more conveniently and at the same time helping the bank with a stronger authentication system based on biometrics. It delivers both stronger security and better user experience,” he said.

Aragon explained that the technology can also apply risk-based authentication depending on the value of a transaction.

“We combine multiple signals and technologies to deliver the right authentication process for each case,” he said.

He added that customers could approve transactions through fingerprint or facial verification directly on their smartphones without visiting a bank branch.

“This ensures we are verifying a real person, not a photocopy or fake image. It is convenient, secure and can be completed in seconds,” he stated.

On partnerships in Nigeria, Aragon said the company is in talks with Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System and plans to engage other regulators and institutions, including the National Population Commission and the Nigerian Communications Commission.

“We are here to stay. We came to Nigeria to invest, and we are prepared to work with government agencies, the banking sector and telecom operators over the long term,” he said.

He stressed that legacy security tools are becoming obsolete in the face of evolving cyber threats.

“Passwords and OTPs no longer provide sufficient protection. Deepfakes are everywhere. We need collaboration across banking, telecoms and government to modernise digital security infrastructure,” he said.

Highlighting the company’s security benchmark results, he said independent third-party laboratories tested the technology’s resilience against attacks.

“They attempted to break the system, and the results showed zero false acceptances during testing. Face SDK achieved zero APCER and zero BPCER. That means attackers were unable to bypass the system, while legitimate users were able to authenticate smoothly without repeated retries,” he said.

Aragon said that the company has already begun discussions with potential clients in Nigeria and is working to integrate its tools into customer applications.

“We are ready to go. We are already engaging customers and providing integration tools. We expect to bring this technology to market within the next few months,” he added.