Security in contact centres
Payment card security is a critical issue for any organisation with a brand reputation to protect. A recent survey by MarketVibe found that 88% of companies think payment card security is very important or critical to protecting their brand – but only 29% were satisfied with their current security.
Taking card payments over the phone is particularly vulnerable to security breaches for three reasons:
- Card details can be overheard by people in the vicinity of the caller.
- Agents are listening to, and could record, the information.
- As the details can be kept on the contact centre’s system, you need to assess the risk of fraudsters accessing the call recordings.
But telephone transaction security goes beyond the verbal transfer of payment card details. In a recent study, Strathclyde University found that 11% of call centre agents had allowed customers to access their account without asking any security details. More than 70% had dealt with a suspicious call they believed was an attempt to steal information. On average, 61% of calls require caller identification and 86% of these use the agent to manage the identification.
Identity theft is also an issue, with CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service, recording an average 75,000-80,000 cases a year. This amounts to an estimated £1billion of fraud per annum in the UK. Equally concerning is that it takes victims of identity theft an average of between 3 and 48 hours to unravel the damage caused by identity theft with the worst cases taking over 200 hours of work. It is estimated that police investigate only the worst 1% of identity theft cases.
Add in the undiminished threat from well-funded international criminal and terrorist groups and it quickly becomes clear that whatever the economic pressures organisations face, the need to continually revisit and refine their anti-fraud strategies remains paramount and contact centres must realise the importance of securing the voice transaction.
See a video of Mike Havard talking about call centre security here.
