A
new report published by Gartner Research places emphasis on another use for
mobile technology in the financial transaction chain — as a security layer for
user authentication via global positioning. If a card transaction is initiated
at an ATM in Phoenix, but the GPS tracking says the cardholder’s phone is in
Atlanta, the bank could flag the transaction as suspect. Gartner’s report, “Get
Smart With Context-Aware Mobile Fraud Detection,” released July 29, estimates
1.8 billion smartphones will be used across the world by the end of 2011. And
Gartner predicts that by the end of 2013, location or profile information from
mobile devices will be used to validate and detect fraud on 90 percent of
mobile transactions. Most smartphones, such as the iPhone, have built-in,
global-positioning-system tracking. The feature provides security for the
phone, in case it gets left at the grocery checkout or someone lifts it when
the owner is not looking. “This is about stronger authentication, and the only
device you can count on for this kind of tracking is the cell phone,” said a
Gartner analyst and lead author of the report. Since most people always have
their phones with them, GPS tracking of the mobile device offers a relatively
reliable way to track a person’s location. As a way to authenticate a financial
transaction, here is how it would work: When a user conducts a card transaction
at an ATM or POS terminal, the location of the ATM or POS device would be
compared with the location of the user’s mobile phone via GPS. So if a card
transaction is initiated at an ATM in Phoenix, but the GPS tracking said the
cardholder’s phone is currently in Atlanta, the bank could flag the transaction
as suspect.
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