Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
You may have general questions about financial authentication, Entersekt, our banking and payment authentication solutions (like biometrics and 3-D Secure), or want to learn more about how our clients benefit from our solutions. We hope these FAQs provide the answers you’re looking for. Feel free to reach out to our specialists if you need more information.
Resources
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
You may have general questions about financial authentication, Entersekt, our banking and payment authentication solutions (like biometrics and 3-D Secure), or want to learn more about how our clients benefit from our solutions. We hope these FAQs provide the answers you’re looking for. Feel free to reach out to our specialists if you need more information.
Resources
About us
Entersekt is a leading financial authentication provider for financial institutions (FIs). Founded in 2008, the company provides FIs with digital banking fraud prevention and payment security solutions through its cross-channel, Context Aware™ Authentication platform that secures digital transactions and optimizes user experiences.
Entersekt is backed by companies like Silicon Valley-based Accel-KKR, one of the world’s top private equity firms, serves FIs around the world, and holds 120+ patents for its security innovations.
Entersekt offers a single, modern authentication platform that delivers banking-grade online transaction security built on real-time risk intelligence. Entersekt offers consistent authentication options across all customer interaction channels leveraging silent and active authentication methods, including biometrics and passkeys, to ensure an optimal user experience with the highest level of security.
Our fraud prevention solutions cover authentication for digital banking transactions, payment authentication and 3-D Secure payments.
Entersekt provides digital banking fraud prevention and payment security solutions that protect the following banking channels:
- Digital banking
- Call center, chat, and branch banking
- Open Banking and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)
- Online payments
Entersekt’s financial authentication solutions serve the financial services sector, focusing on digital fraud prevention for banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions, both retail and commercial.
Entersekt’s headquarters is co-located in Cape Town, South Africa and Atlanta, U.S. with additional office locations around the globe including Europe, the UK, and Africa.
You can get in touch with Entersekt via our general inquiries webpage for support-related or general queries.
At Entersekt, we believe that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to customer and payment authentication. Out pioneering technology provides financial institutions with a single solution that covers all banking and payment channels and analyzes the context of each transaction in real-time to provide the most suitable authentication and reduce unnecessary friction.
To get started with Entersekt, you can book a demo or contact us about a product-related or general query here.
Entersekt products
EMV 3DS provides a layer of security to online payments and chip cards provide a layer of security to transactions where the card and cardholder are present for the transaction. Both follow the protocols of EMVCo, the global technical body that manages and develops specifications and programs for card-based payments.
Financial institutions in Europe and the UK are required to follow SCA and implement two-factor authentication (2FA) for digital payments.
SCA exemptions apply to payment service providers, and focus on factors such as the transaction amount, the payment channel, payment risk and whether a payment is reoccurring. A few specific examples of exemptions include low-risk transactions, contactless payments at a POS, payments to a trusted beneficiary or a credit transfer between one person’s own accounts. If no exemption applies to a transaction, then SCA must be applied.
All major global card networks including Visa, Mastercard, Discovery, American Express, UnionPay, JCB, Discover Card, Diners Club, and many regional card schemes including Mir, Bancontact, ELO, Dankort, and more.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a form of authentication that helps prevent unauthorized access by requiring users to provide two or more authentication factors to verify their identity. These can include the knowledge factor (something you know, like a password), the possession factor (something you have, like a mobile phone) or the inherence factor (something that uniquely identifies a person, such as their fingerprint).
Biometric authentication is a security process that relies on the unique biological characteristics of an individual to verify that they are who they say they are. Biometric authentication systems compare physical traits to stored, confirmed, authentication data. If both samples of the biometric data match, authentication is confirmed. Since biometric authentication uses unique characteristics for verification, they are difficult to replicate, making this authentication method more secure, and convenient. Traditional authentication methods, such as usernames, passwords or ID cards, are not as secure as they can be easily stolen or guessed by fraudsters.
Out-of-band authentication is a type of two-factor authentication that requires a secondary verification method through a separate communication channel along with the username and password. Out-of-band authentication is often used in financial institutions and other organizations with high security requirements. Out-of-band helps to improve cybersecurity because it makes hacking an account more difficult due to two separate and unconnected authentication channels that a fraudster would need to simultaneously compromise to gain access.
One-time passwords (OTPs) can easily be intercepted by fraudsters employing cyberattack techniques like phishing, man-in-the-middle or SIM-swap schemes. Fraudsters trick unsuspecting users into sharing their internet banking credentials (username and password) on a site that mimics the real banking site. When the user enters their details on the fake banking site, the fraudster captures their banking information and uses their credentials to steal money from their account.
Each bank has a different definition of which transactions they consider to be high risk, but the following are typically considered high risk:
Most banks will require two-factor or multi-factor authentication if you initiate one of these types of transactions.
- One-time payments
- Recurring payments
- Future-dated purchases
- Prepaid purchases
- Adding beneficiaries or making account changes
- ACH and wire transfers, Zelle or other P2P payments
Most banks will require two-factor or multi-factor authentication if you initiate one of these types of transactions.
At Entersekt, our multi-factor authentication (MFA) offers stronger protection against fraud than outdated authentication measures like passwords or one-time passwords (OTPs), which many FIs still use. Our MFA provides a layered approach to security, requiring two or more authentication factors to verify a customer’s identity, such as customer’s device (possession factor) and biometrics (inherence factor). Entersekt solutions are also backed by extensive risk data enabling secure and user-friendly digital banking experiences.
One way to verify a customer’s identity is through their browser. However, some solutions rely on technology that does not prioritize consumer privacy, such as cookies or device fingerprinting. Entersekt’s Browser Authentication utilizes silent and active authentication measures to turn the customer’s browser into a secure possession factor. Browser Authentication creates a seamless, passwordless, login experience without tracking customers across the web.
When customers want to make high-risk transactions, like an instant payment, strong security is a must to prevent digital banking fraud. To secure high-risk transactions, Entersekt’s approach includes sharing real-time risk data across all banking channels. This enables our solutions to make risk decisions based on the context of each transaction (Context Aware™ Authentication) and step up the security measures for high-risk transactions, without adding any unnecessary friction.
Unlike traditional OTPs, which fraudsters can easily intercept through techniques like phishing or SIM-swap schemes, Entersekt's Customer Authentication enables more modern and secure online banking experiences through multi-factor authentication and biometric authentication. These methods significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access, ensuring that user credentials remain secure.
Entersekt offers passwordless authentication options through our Browser Authentication and Biometric Authentication products. Biometrics, like a face scan or fingerprint, provides a familiar and user-friendly method to verify a customer’s identity. Our other passwordless technologies include QR codes, behavioral analysis, passkeys and push notifications.
Customer success
According to global research and advisory firm, Datos Insights, “What differentiates Entersekt’s platform from other authentication hubs is that it has fully integrated its authentication orchestration platform with payments channels, such as its ACS.”
In addition, Entersekt’s digital banking fraud prevention and payment security solutions deliver benefits such as:
In addition, Entersekt’s digital banking fraud prevention and payment security solutions deliver benefits such as:
- One integrated solution
- A real-time risk engine
- Personalized, orchestrated customer journeys
- Continuous compliance
- Robust security
- Easily scalable
One credit union recorded 3,000 password reset attempts over one month, saving them an estimated $30,000 if those password resets had gone through their call center channel. Plus, while 90% of those attempts were approved by a trusted customer device, 10% were declined, potentially preventing 300 ATO attacks.
Within two months of implementation, another financial institution enabled over 190,000 frictionless logins using our silent attestation features. The solution also enabled call center savings of approximately $50,000 based on nearly 5,000 password resets handled via our app, rather than through their call center. For the small percentage of declined requests, the provider saved an approximate $900,000 from potential ATO losses prevented.
Within two months of implementation, another financial institution enabled over 190,000 frictionless logins using our silent attestation features. The solution also enabled call center savings of approximately $50,000 based on nearly 5,000 password resets handled via our app, rather than through their call center. For the small percentage of declined requests, the provider saved an approximate $900,000 from potential ATO losses prevented.
Read more of our case studies here.
One digital banking platform shared that, “With a single integration such as Entersekt, a bank (or credit union) can really protect all of their customers across the entire landscape."
One issuer commented that, “Together with Entersekt, we have implemented a future-proof solution with the FIDO standard. So far, this is a unique alternative to app-based authentication in the German market.”
A credit union client shared that, “MemberPass’s extended functionality from Entersekt provides unmatched biometric authentication for our digital banking platform, while being in tune with members’ unique preferences for user logins and payments.”
One issuer commented that, “Together with Entersekt, we have implemented a future-proof solution with the FIDO standard. So far, this is a unique alternative to app-based authentication in the German market.”
A credit union client shared that, “MemberPass’s extended functionality from Entersekt provides unmatched biometric authentication for our digital banking platform, while being in tune with members’ unique preferences for user logins and payments.”