Authentication

With tighter security in the online and mobile channels, fraudsters are turning their attention to vulnerable contact centers, conning eager-to-please phone service reps into coughing up customer information or letting them reset passwords on other people’s accounts.

The precedent set in the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI over custom access to a device in question opens up unsettling risks on privacy and security.

Security veterans Frank Abagnale and Ori Eisen have teamed up on a heavy-duty authentication service with no pretensions of being easy to use. Their venture, Trusona, just raised $8 million.

Despite the rise of digital banking, most people still look to physical channels when opening accounts. That's partly due to consumer preference, but banks have a long way to go to make the digital sales experience smooth.

Orrstown Bank launched several innovative Web initiatives in 2015, including a SMS two-way texting platform and a Zillow-like feature that displays housing listings on its Web presence.

Bank of America announced Thursday that it customers can now suspend their debit cards temporarily; it is the first of several new features the bank has planned for 2016 after it tripled its digital banking budget.

Biometrics are seen as the future of authentication, but some customers hesitate to ditch old ways. Picking the most practical pain points — like authenticating over the phone — is banks' best bet to win converts, observers say.

Banks' core systems are like spaghetti — a mess of noodles. They need to find ways to be more structured,, says Hanspeter Wolf, CEO of onboarding software vendor Appway.

Authentication methods meant to keep cybercriminals from taking over accounts can also lock out legitimate users. This old dilemma is growing more vexing as cybercriminals get better at impersonating customers and as regulators increasingly push multifactor authentication.

Bank regulators will stiffen their requirements and identity theft will escalate, but banks will toughen up their defenses.