Slashdot Mirror
Should Brokers Use 'Voice Prints' For Stock Transactions? (cnbc.com)
Fidelity and Charles Schwab now allow traders to use "voice prints" to authorize stock transactions. But there's more to the story, argues long-time Slashdot reader maiden_taiwan:
Fidelity Investments is touting its new security feature, MyVoice, which allows a customer to access his/her financial accounts by telephone without a password. "When you call Fidelity, you'll no longer have to enter PINs or passwords because Fidelity MyVoice helps you interact with us securely and more conveniently. Through natural conversation, MyVoice will detect and verify your voiceprint in the first few moments of the call... Fidelity MyVoice performs even if you have a cold, allergies, or a sore throat."
Based on my own experience, Fidelity now enables MyVoice automatically for its customers who call in for other reasons. Apparently, their conversation with Fidelity customer service provides enough data for MyVoice to recognize them. (Customers are informed afterward that MyVoice has been enabled, and they can opt out, although they aren't told that opting out is possible.)
It's not clear whether Fidelity is creating voice profiles of their customers without asking first. (Fidelity's site says only that their representatives will "offer" to enroll you the next time you call.) But the original submission ends with two more questions. "In an era where Apple's face recognition is easily defeated by family members, is voice recognition any more secure?"
And "Is a 'voiceprint' even possible?"
Based on my own experience, Fidelity now enables MyVoice automatically for its customers who call in for other reasons. Apparently, their conversation with Fidelity customer service provides enough data for MyVoice to recognize them. (Customers are informed afterward that MyVoice has been enabled, and they can opt out, although they aren't told that opting out is possible.)
It's not clear whether Fidelity is creating voice profiles of their customers without asking first. (Fidelity's site says only that their representatives will "offer" to enroll you the next time you call.) But the original submission ends with two more questions. "In an era where Apple's face recognition is easily defeated by family members, is voice recognition any more secure?"
And "Is a 'voiceprint' even possible?"
Hi, my name is Werner Brandes. My voice is my passport. Verify Me.
Oops- I have to make a transaction but I'm hoarse from a cold, or a concert, or a car accident... guess I just go bankrupt.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Whenever a friend or family member calls me, I can recognize their voice even WITHOUT them telling me who it is. So yes, of course it's possible to recognize voices, especially when the person says their name, so you're only confirming yes / no to a particular identity, not trying to figure out who it is.
A few things need to be done to make it more secure than it would be without them. The biggest one is a challenge - they should be prompted to say something they wouldn't predict ahead of time, in order to foil recordings. You could probably get a recording of me saying my nams, "Ray Morris" if you knew ahead of time what you needed me to say, but of the system asks random questions like "where do you work?" it would be tough to have a recording prepared for every possible question.
One should also factor in other indicators such as caller ID and anamoly detection. If the person calls every month and does a $5,000 transaction, the next time they do the same thing is probably legitimate. If they are trying to do something out of the norm, stronger verification is called for. Many weak authenticators combined end up pretty strong, if the weak indicators are reasonably independent.
"Is a 'voiceprint' even possible?"
Yes, given a standardised high-quality microphone in a controlled, acoustically-neutral environment, directly connected to the analysis system.
However, in the case of audio captured in random-background-noise environments from variable (generally average-to-poor) quality microphones, frequency-constrained and compressed (in the analogue sense) then, in the case of a land-line, pushed down a mile or so of dodgy copper or aluminium before being encoded and compressed (in the digital sense), then punted through a variety of systems before being re-constituted at the receiving end, and then being able to reliably identify one person from another with sufficient accuracy to legally enter into a contract... no.
I think Rory Bremner (substitue your locally-well-known impressionist) is going to become incredibly wealthy.
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"This is how Majel Barrett is the computer voice in Star Trek Discovery despite having passed way years ago."
Er, no.
Firstly, it doesn't sound anything like her. Secondly, if you actually looked at the IMDB credits page: ... Discovery Computer ... Shenzhou Computer
Julianne Grossman
Tasia Valenza
Making crap up to reinforce your point is a good way for people to ignore your entire argument.