Device Fingerprinting for Fraud Detection in Online Banking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing security measures for online banking and financial transactions are inadequate as they rely on user carelessness to prevent fraud, and may result in false positives that inconvenience legitimate users by restricting access to their accounts.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses device fingerprinting technology to identify and authorize remote access to customer account information, involving the account holder in the fraud determination process by sending notifications to a customer-specified address for approval, thereby enhancing security and reducing false positives.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional security measures are implemented to detect fraudulent activity, then security reliability is improved, but false positives increase causing inconvenience to legitimate users
Solution Approach 1:
The system sends notifications to customers about suspicious access attempts and waits for their response before taking action. This feedback loop allows legitimate users to confirm their identity and resume normal access, while preventing unauthorized access by blocking requests that don't receive customer confirmation.
Solution Approach 2:
The customer acts as an intermediary in the authentication process. When a suspicious access attempt is detected, the system notifies the customer and waits for their authorization. This intermediary step resolves the contradiction by allowing the system to maintain security while avoiding false positives that would inconvenience legitimate users.
2Reliability
If strict security measures are applied to prevent fraudulent access, then security reliability is improved, but access speed and productivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies security measures selectively rather than universally. It monitors all access attempts but only triggers notifications for suspicious requests that don't match authorized device fingerprints. This partial application of security maintains high productivity for legitimate users while ensuring security for suspicious access attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the security response based on device fingerprint matching. For authorized devices, access is granted immediately without notification delays. For unauthorized devices, the system implements notification and confirmation steps. This parameter-based differentiation resolves the contradiction between security reliability and access speed.
3Measurement precision
If device fingerprinting is implemented to identify remote devices, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of implementing complex device fingerprinting capabilities in each customer device, the system creates a simplified copy or representation of the fingerprint data on the server side. The server stores and compares device fingerprint identifiers without requiring the full fingerprinting infrastructure at the customer endpoint, thus improving measurement precision while minimizing added complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A network security system includes a server configured to receive an access request via a network from a remote computing device, a database storing customer account information accessible by the server, and memory accessible by the server and storing a customer notification program. When executed by the server, the program identifies the remote computing device by a device fingerprint and requesting location, determines whether the device fingerprint matches any authorized device fingerprints stored in the database and sends, responsive to a mismatch between the device fingerprint and the authorized device fingerprints, a notification of the request to a customer-specified address. The notification indicates the request, the identity of the remote computing device, and the requesting location. The program may resolve the request responsive to a reply to the notification from the customer-specified address.