TalkTalk ditches passwords for voice-recognition tech after Oct hack

LONDON — TalkTalk is allowing its customers to access their accounts using voice recognition, several months after a major cyberattack compromised the personal details of hundreds of thousands of customers.

Instead of being asked for personal details, such as their password, people who ring the company’s customer support hotline will be able to confirm their identity using biometric technology that recognises the characteristics of their voice.

When subscribers next ring TalkTalk’s customer-service line, they will be asked to repeat a phrase three times, which is then used to build a blueprint of the customer’s voice.

TalkTalk said voice recognition technology is one of the most secure ways to verify people’s identity, recognising more than 100 different aspects of a person’s voice, including the shape of their larynx and nasal passage. The company also said it would speed up its often-criticised customer-service operations, which are consistently rated worse than its peers.

It comes five months after the personal details of 157,000 customers were breached in a cyberattack that saw bank account and credit card details stolen. TalkTalk has lost more than 100,000 subscribers since the incident and estimates it will cost the company £60 million (S$118 million).

UK banks have already begun introducing voice-recognition technology but TalkTalk said it is the first outside the banking sector to do so. “The launch forms part of TalkTalk’s continual focus on improving customers’ experience and its long-term strategy to ensure customer data is as secure as possible,” said the company.

“Over time, voice biometrics will reduce the amount of sensitive personal information customers will have to disclose, as when a customer calls, the adviser will only see if the customer is verified or not.”

Biometric authentication is seen as an increasingly important way to secure customers’ details without them having to remember many different passwords or put their security at risk by using just one. Amazon recently patented a way of verifying payments using selfie photos, in which software scans the user’s face to confirm their identity. THE TELEGRAPH