Written by: Lynn Cadet
Edited by: Lillian Castro
TL; DR: Jumio is an industry-leading cybersecurity company that offers users the biometric solutions they need to tackle identity theft across the board. Its KYX platform delivers end-to-end orchestration for background checks that help users simplify their workloads and cut out middlemen. Jumio allows companies to stop fraudsters in their tracks and onboard verified customers without losing focus on their core operations.
Cybercrime has risen tremendously since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing by 600%, according to Embroker. Unfortunately, many businesses didn’t have the technical know-how to tackle these issues or understand the extent of cybercrime. Failure to protect your business from fraud, data hacking, and other attack vectors can result in adverse circumstances, such as loss of confidential information and profits.
Cybersecurity has become essential in business operations as the world goes digital. Many companies have invested in cybersecurity solutions to combat the bad actors that have grown in number. However, the fight against cybercrime can often feel like a cat-and-mouse game. Once a business has the upper hand, an attacker finds a new way to enter. That is why companies must invest in cybersecurity tools that continue to innovate and stay ahead of cyber threats.
“Businesses have to deal with fraud because all these bad actors are trying to take advantage of the services they’re offering. It’s a big distraction from what the companies actually set out to do,” said Bala Kumar, Chief Product Officer of Jumio. “Our message is to stop worrying about it, leave managing the fraudsters to us. So you can go back to focus on your core business.”
Jumio delivers an all-in-one platform that evaluates and verifies identification to combat identity theft. The software company leverages biometric authentication and liveness checks to match users to their government-based IDs and complete background checks.
“Because we’ve been doing this for so many years, we know what to look for. We process well over a billion plus transactions across our different solutions. So you can imagine the amount of data we have seen, which contributes to making our machine learning models more efficient. So we’re able to separate the good from the bad relatively well compared to the marketplace,” said Bala.
Verifying Identity with Government-Based IDs and Liveness Checks
Jumio is an industry-leading expert in verifying and validating government-based IDs. Bala told us that Jumio hones in on government ID verification because it is the best guarantee for security checks. Over the years, personal data has been compromised on a high level, with user information circulating on the dark web. Data such as email, name, and phone numbers are not as sufficient and trustworthy as they were before because many fraudsters have access to them now.
Jumio allows businesses to have trust and confidence in their verifications. Its ID verification process includes three main steps: a solid photo capture, feedback, and confirmation. Bala told us the picture must be of good quality before a user can send it off to eliminate back and forths. This is where feedback comes in.
“What we don’t want to happen is they take a picture, send it off, and then we come back a couple of seconds later and say that’s not a good quality picture. You’re introducing friction in the process for the end user. So we want to be able to give them that feedback instantly as they’re capturing it,” said Bala.
When checking for a manipulated ID, Jumio looks at various features of an ID. Bala said there are six to eight versions of state IDs in circulation at all times. Each state has its variations, and the Jumio platform must check against multiple template designs, including font and positioning of information. Jumio also accounts for embedded security features in IDs that are not always immediately visible to the human eye. But the company isn’t only limited to ID checks.
“We also use different liveness models. And each of those approaches is optimized to fight specific types of attacks. The most common example is what we call a screen attack,” said Bala.
Companies can also have end users take selfies for their background checks with Jumio. Since fraudsters can’t take the selfie, they will try to use digital copies. The liveness model, however, can detect these screen copies and look for different factors to validate the live individual. These live interactions play a massive role in combating compromised data.
Streamlining the Customer Onboarding Process with End-to-End Orchestration
Various industries utilize Jumio’s capabilities to verify the identification of their end users. These industries include ride-sharing, financial services, gaming, insurance, and cryptocurrency. By leveraging Jumio’s platform, companies can offload their security check processes and focus on their core operations.
Jumio recently made its platform more comprehensive to tackle everything needed for background checks from end to end. This way, it can help companies eliminate the middleman and accelerate the customer onboarding process.
“Over the last 12-18 months, we have rolled out capabilities to support name address checks, email checks, phone checks, price checks, etc. So now we are providing a much more holistic solution. None of those capabilities existed months ago,” Bala said.
Jumio built most of the platform from scratch but also acquired technology from some of the leading orchestration solution providers in the market. Its KYX platform allows it to service customers from the start of the application process for end users. Before, Jumio would only see 10% to 15% of end users since the rest of the traffic had already passed through the process and didn’t require an ID check. Now, Jumio can support the entire journey and streamline its customers’ workloads.
“What is most important is being able to provide that end-to-end orchestration platform that includes our code and verification service. So customers don’t have to worry about dealing with multiple vendors. This is one of the biggest challenges in the marketplace, where customers deal with a dozen vendors, one for email, one for phone, one for ID,” said Bala.
Being the middleman and orchestration provider, Jumio can distill all the information and deliver one meaningful review on rejection or approval. With Jumio’s comprehensive view, businesses can get the sound guidance they need while simplifying how they onboard customers.
Reducing Friction for Reliable Customers with New Solutions
Jumio is all about simplifying the customer experience for its users. The company has used its expertise in cutting-edge technology to innovate and develop multiple solutions to answer customer needs. And it has more solutions on the way.
“Our goal is to build a 360-degree view of an individual. So when somebody comes in and knocks on the door, we can quickly recognize it is somebody you’ve worked with in the past, giving us a high degree of confidence. So our intent is to reduce the friction for that good consumer,” said Bala.
Jumio accumulates tons of data on end users during its verification process. That means it can pinpoint IDs, email addresses, and other features already associated with users. By creating this 360-view solution, Jumio can allow consumers with honorable intentions to pass the system without much effort. Bala likened the solution to TSA Pre-Check, where the end user can gain smooth access quickly because the system already trusts them.
As for other updates, the Jumio team will continue to maintain its platform and keep it up to date with the latest ID changes and templates that are in circulation. Innovation is in Jumio’s nature, as the enemies of security have no plans of slowing down either.
“Fraudsters continue to come up with new attack vectors. So it’s a constant cat-and-mouse game. We want to make sure we are staying ahead of them. So that’s another area of significant investment for us to be able to stop fraud,” said Bala.
