Pindrop® Security Granted Patent for Phone Antifraud and Authentication Technology

Phoneprinting solution already stopping millions of dollars in fraud at top banks and retailers

ATLANTA – June 9, 2015 – Pindrop Security, the pioneer in phone fraud prevention and call center authentication for banks and enterprise call centers, today announced it was awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its Phoneprinting technology. Pindrop’s newly patented Phoneprinting combines authentication with fraud detection technology to verify legitimate callers and detect malicious callers.

Phoneprinting analyzes 147 distinctive audio features in each phone call, including noise, spectrum and VoIP packet loss. The technology can identify anomalies, track callers, determine their location and device type, and identify Caller ID spoofing based on 15 seconds of call audio. The technology, which has been adopted by two of the top four banks, as well as leading brokerages and retailers in the U.S., is able to detect more than 80 percent of fraudulent calls into financial and enterprise call centers and prevents more than 95 percent of potential fraud losses.

“Customer service units, such as call centers, have very different objectives than do security and fraud units. The former are mainly concerned about customer experience and agent productivity; the latter worry most about security. Up to 30 percent of financial account takeover moves across the call center and online channels. Fraudsters perpetrate crimes by socially engineering call center agents who typically employ weak methods to authenticate callers,” wrote Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research.¹

Phoneprinting was born out of the Ph.D. thesis of Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder and CEO of Pindrop Security, who noticed phone lines in various countries had subtle differences in audio quality and other attributes. The patent secures the algorithm Balasubramaniyan developed to analyze calls.

“Despite the fact that phone fraudsters are deploying new voice-altering technology and phone scam tactics as a means to compromise organizations and consumers, there has been little to no progress made for security on the phone channel over the last 40 years,” said Balasubramaniyan. “Phoneprinting provides our customers in financial and enterprise call centers with actionable, accurate information in near real-time to stop financial losses and to reduce the cost of authenticating legitimate callers.”

Awarded USPTO Patent No. 9,037,113, news of the Phoneprinting patent comes on the heels of Pindrop’s announcement of a $35 million Series B round of funding in February 2015. The patent further solidifies the company’s continued leadership in the fast-growing voice antifraud and authentication market, with top banks and retailers as well as Fortune 500 companies deploying Pindrop’s technology.

Additional Resources:

¹ Gartner, Using Voice Biometrics and Phone Printing to Secure Telephony and Authenticate Callers, Avivah Litan, 30 July 2013, refreshed 1 August 2014

About Pindrop Security:

Pindrop Security, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is a privately-held company that provides enterprise solutions to secure phone and voice communications. Pindrop solutions reduce fraud losses and authentication expense for some of the largest banks, brokerages and retailers in the world. Pindrop’s patented Phoneprinting technology can identify, locate and authenticate phone devices uniquely just from the call audio thereby detecting fraudulent calls as well as verifying legitimate callers. Named SC Magazine 2013 Rookie Security Company of the Year and one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies at the 2012 RSA conference, Pindrop Security’s solutions restore enterprises’ confidence in the security of phone-based transactions.