Using Behavioral Biometrics to Detect How Fraudsters Operate

For certain repetitive, predictable and routine tasks, behavioural traits effectively lead to a unique profile for genuine users. Being able to analyse.

Author: Rahi Bhattacharjee

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is causing the uptick in the use of soft biometrics?
• How does one use Behavioural Biometrics analytics effectively?
• Behavioral Biometric analysis that shows signs of fraud
• Authenticating the human behind the screen
• How does Bureau leverage behavioral biometrics to protect digital customers?

What is causing the uptick in the use of soft biometrics?

1. Privacy laws
   • Every individual state wants control over its data for both business and security purposes. However, there are concerns of function creep, where the data is used for other purposes than what it was originally intended for.
   • Users are a lot more privacy-conscious nowadays, and rightfully so. With the increasing prevalence of biometric systems, biometric data could be matched across various systems or databases without the individual’s awareness or approval. This could result in detailed profiling and monitoring, which would violate personal privacy.

In a nutshell: Strong biometrics like iris and fingerprint data are unique, permanent identifiers, making them sensitive and difficult to change if compromised, while soft biometrics like typing speed and mouse movement are behavioral patterns that are less invasive and don’t directly expose personal identity.

2. Advancements in AI computation

   • The cost of AI computation has decreased, making it more affordable to achieve sophisticated analysis of behavioral data that once required substantial resources, thus democratizing the use of soft biometrics.
   • Advances in generative AI have enhanced the ability to correlate complex behavioral patterns, resulting in improved accuracy and more refined outcomes in the identification and authentication processes.
   • The capacity to manage and analyze vast amounts of data has significantly increased, enabling real-time processing and interpretation of soft biometrics across large and diverse user bases, further enhancing their applicability.

3. Digital savviness

   • User behavior has evolved through multiple digital revolutions, leaving behind rich trails that reveal user intentions and preferences.
   • Consumers now have exceptionally high expectations for app experiences, assuming that their behavioral actions seamlessly guide and personalize their interactions.

How does one use Behavioural Biometrics analytics effectively?

An often quoted starter pack book for product managers is Steve Krug’s “Don’t make me think”. One of the key takeaways from the book is very simple - Intuitive software applications gain adoptions themselves.

The key word for us is intuitive here.

Using behavioural analytics, businesses can optimize several areas across the user journey in any digital application. Here are some examples:

1. Understanding buyer preferences by analysing the parts of the website a user spent more time on.
2. By analyzing where users drop off during the onboarding process, businesses can identify confusing steps or points of friction.
3. Studying how players interact in multiplayer games can enhance features to make them more engaging, fostering a stronger sense of community.

Behavioral Biometric analysis that shows signs of fraud

Let's take a look at some of the common depictions of "non-humannes" that signal more sinister actors at play:

1. Fair Play in Gaming
   Hackers often use tools like auto clickers to gain an unfair advantage in games by executing actions at speeds or with precision that exceed human capabilities.

2. Account Takeover
   During an account takeover, a fraudster may exhibit behavior that deviates from the user’s typical interactions.

3. Remote Attack Prevention
   Bots or malicious programs attempting unauthorized access often display highly unnatural navigation patterns.

4. Fake Signups
   Scammers can breeze through registration forms with unnatural speed and precision, filling out fields without hesitation.

5. Cart Conversion
   Fraudsters often engage with e-commerce platforms in ways that differ from genuine customers, rapidly adding items to a cart.

Authenticating the human behind the screen

Today we want to focus on the underpinning element behind these use-cases that is understanding an individual through silent, implicit and intuitive behavioural trails that reflect the user’s core intentions.

To simplify it further, certain repetitive, predictable and routine tasks, behavioural traits effectively lead to a unique profile for an individual.

If we were to get technical about this, some of the elements that can make authentication more unique and profile-able to an individual would be:

• What is the dwell time on a screen page?
• What are the press and release time for specific keystrokes?
• How deep is the tap as captured by a sensor?
• Are you a one-handed person or a dual-handed person?
• How quickly does one do this? What are the completion speeds like?

How does Bureau leverage behavioral biometrics to protect digital customers?

When you integrate with Bureau SDKs, there are specific steps that follow:

1. Gathering diverse behavioral data from various customer touchpoints.
2. Categorizing and classifying the collected data points into broader groups based on user behavior.
3. Detecting and identifying specific signals and triggers that emerge from patterns in the collected data.

Bureau’s Behavioural Biometrics solution provides answers to all of these solutions.