Page 23 - Pay Magazine s2014

volume 9 • fall 2016
Secret Sauce
Automate forensic document authentication and face- matching, 10-second response time.
GettiNG tO KNOw
AuthenticID
Knowledge-based authentication —where consumers answer questions only they should know
the answers to—has become in- creasingly ine ective. Social media has made it simple for criminals to get their hands on everything from your pet’s name to the model
of your rst car. Add to that what seems like daily data breaches of sensitive information and it’s not all that di cult for fraudsters to pretend to be legit customers. Enter AuthenticID, an Atlanta- based authentication specialist that combines government-issued ID information with facial recognition.
“Identity-proo ng has been a challenge for as long as I remem- ber,” says AuthenticID founder Blair Cohen, who operated a background-screening rm until selling it in 2009. Cohen launched AuthenticID in 2013, creating a platform that enables companies to authenticate based not on what a user knows, but on what he or
Atlanta company combines gov’t IDs and “sel es” to ensure users are who they appear to be.
she has—namely, a government- issued photo ID.
The company’s latest o ering, known as Cat shAIR, is built for banks and other nancial services providers. The service enables companies to verify new accounts by having the user take a sel e with a smartphone and matching that with a photo of a government- issued ID, such as a passport or driver’s license. After checking the authenticity of the ID, Cat shAIR then compares it with the sel e to make sure the photo is of the same person as shown on the ID.
The service also could be used for ID veri cation in large transactions, such as mortgages, real estate pur- chases, vacation rentals and online gaming, Cohen notes. “Cat shAIR could be used by any company in any industry if they want to prevent identity theft fraud, either during account origination or before a nal transaction takes place,” he says.
Marketplace Names
AuthenticID, Cat shAIR, Cat shID and ValidID
Location
Atlanta
Open for Business
May 2013
Line of Business
Identity-proo ng, KYC
Founder
Blair Cohen
Ownership
Private
Business Model
Per-transaction pricing
Something You Might
Not expect
Our solution will verify anyone from anywhere, bringing nancial inclusion to millions.
paybefore.com 21