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A focus on user experience has become a mantra for many companies, including Google, who lists "focus on the user and all else will follow" at the top of its ten truths. When we think about the brands we admire most, our experience with these brands leaves a lasting impression. Yet in today's mobile world, user attention is a scarce commodity, with the difference between a great, or less than great experience, being measured in seconds. 

With the introduction in 2017 of the Face ID feature on the iPhone X, Apple brought face recognition technology to the forefront for many people. While the development of face recognition technology began in the 1960s, it is the increase in computing power and new device form factors, that has enabled the technology to gain more widespread adoption. Facial recognition today is commonly used to unlock phones, open new digital bank accounts, and even used for identity proofing people at customs in airports. However it is this link between facial recognition technology and identity that is starting to raise concerns on the use of the technology in relation to security, bias and user privacy .

In digital fraud prevention, there is a fine line between flagging too many transactions as potentially fraudulent and not flagging enough. Too many false negatives means that fraudsters are slipping through the cracks, too many false positives means legitimate users and transactions are being flagged incorrectly, leading to undue friction and lost business. As digital transactions grow, 66% of businesses cite balancing friction with fraud prevention as their number one concern (IDology). Given this, it is no longer enough for authentication solutions to just prevent fraud, they need to demonstrate how they can keep false positives low as well.

The attack on Twitter this week, that resulted in the takeover of a number of high-profile accounts, including Bill Gates, Barrack Obama, Elon Musk and Joe Biden, illustrates how easy it can be for fraudsters to take over accounts. Even with multiple layers of security, accounts are vulnerable to backdoors that fraudsters exploit.

Application fraud is a billion dollar problem for financial institutions (FI). It occurs when a fraudster applies for credit, like a credit card or personal loan, with no intention of paying it back. While some fraudsters might use their own information and then drop off the radar, first-party application fraud is a less common technique today.