Glossary

A comprehensive glossary of terms related to call centre security, voice biometrics, and authentication solutions. This resource provides clear definitions and explanations to help you understand the terminology used in modern contact center security.

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A C E F I N O P R S T U V

A

Active Voice Biometrics: Active Voice Biometrics is an approach to using Voice Biometrics that requires the user to say additional utterances that would not otherwise have been required when calling or interacting with a speech service for authentication or enrolment.
Authentication: Authentication is the call centre security process step in which a user's identity is confirmed. We check they are who they claim to be. It requires the use of one or more authentication factors.

C

Consent: Consent is a step in the registration process where a user provides permission to process their biometric data before enrolment in a Voice Biometric system in a way which complies with applicable data protection and privacy legislation.

E

Efficiency: Efficiency is one of three measures of Call Centre Security process performance. It represents the actual and opportunity cost of the security process, for example the costs of agent time spent on manual authentication or the missed opportunity for self-service.
Enrolment: Enrolment is a step in the registration process where specific utterances are requested from the user or previously acquired audio is used to create a Voice Biometric template (Voiceprint) for subsequent use in Authentication/Identification.

F

False Accept (FA): A False Accept is when an imposter is incorrectly accepted as the genuine user during authentication.
False Reject (FR): A False Reject is the case when during authentication, a user who is the genuine user is incorrectly rejected.

I

Identification: Identification is call centre security process step in which an individual record is found in the organisation's systems of record. In this step users claim an Identity.

N

Network Authentication and Fraud Prevention: Network Authentication and Fraud Prevention uses signalling data from a phone call either to confirm that the call originated from a device known to be in possession of the genuine user or to detect when the call has originated from a device, location or network indicative of suspicious behaviour.

O

Offer: Offer is a step in the registration process where a user is introduced to and offered enrolment in a Voice Biometric service.

P

Passive Voice Biometrics: Passive Voice Biometrics authenticates and enrols users without them needing to do anything additional to their reason for calling or interacting with a speech service.
Presentation Attack: Presentation attacks are a form of attack on a biometric system when the fraudster attempts to gain access by presenting a fake biometrics characteristic or artefact. In the case of Voice Biometrics, this is most often with a recording or a synthetic voice.

R

Registration: Registration is the business process where a user is offered, consents to, and completes a Voice Biometric service enrolment.

S

Security: Security is one of three key measures of Call Centre Security process performance. It is usually expressed as the likelihood that the process allows someone who isn't who they claim to be to access the service (False Accept).
Synthetic Speech Detection: Synthetic Speech Detection is a mechanism used to protect Voice Biometrics systems from presentation attacks using synthetic speech. It relies on detecting characteristics inherent in the text-to-speech (TTS) generation process.

T

Text-Dependent Voice Biometrics: A form of Voice Biometrics that is dependent on the same utterance used during enrolment being repeated during authentication or identification.
Text-Independent Voice Biometrics: Text Independent Voice Biometrics is a form of Voice Biometrics that is not dependent on the utterance being used during enrolment being repeated during authentication or identification.
True User Imposter Test (TUIT): A True User Imposter Test evaluates the False Accept and False Accept rates of a Voice Biometric system by using existing users of the system to simulate imposter attempts. This is an essential step in establishing the appropriate Biometric threshold.
Tuning: Tuning, in the context of voice biometrics, refers to the process of adjusting the configuration and parameters of a voice biometric system to optimize its performance for a particular task or environment.

U

Usability: Usability is the primary performance dimension of the security process. Get it right and both security and efficiency flow, but usability is all wrapped up in human psychology. It’s a complicated subject deeply linked to behaviour, not just that of customers, but also of call-centre agents.

V

Voice Biometrics: Voice Biometrics uses the unique properties of a speakers voice to confirm their identity (authentication) or identify them from a group of known speakers (identification).