How the Rise in Remote Work is Driving the Need for ID Verification
By Howard Schulman
Many businesses are feeling the adverse effects of the coronavirus, the major effect being the economic turmoil. Aside from that, businesses face the challenge of providing a safe working environment for their employees. More and more businesses are embracing the concept of remote work. Studies show that the number of people working from home has risen by approximately 91% over the last 10 years.
While working from home is flexible for most people, it has its fair share of challenges. Top of the list is constant attacks by fraudsters who want to compromise the organization's services. This is driving companies to embrace ID verification technology. This tech can help organizations to streamline their operations. It also strengthens the system’s ability to recognize authorized users.
Challenges of Remote Working and the ID Verification Policy
People working from their offices know exactly who they are communicating with. Most companies use private networks to ease communication among various departments and with customers. This is not the same case for people working remotely.
Remote working means that employees will use different servers to access and share data from the organization. You are never sure if the person you are communicating with is the intended recipient. A hacker may be posing as a genuine employee or client to steal from you.
In such an environment, the ID verification for remote workers comes in handy. The verification process allows businesses to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer regulations. In addition, the verification helps to authenticate identities while onboarding. In essence, the ID verification protects both the employee and the organization from malicious hackers and fraudsters.
The ID verification process is quite simple. It only requires a person to take a selfie and upload it for verification alongside their government ID. The fact that this process is not cumbersome like the traditional verification process makes it attractive for remote workers. Below are some of the ways how remote work is driving the need for ID verification in most businesses.
Employee Verification
Remote working gives employees a lot of freedom. But it also puts them in a precarious position. It forces employees to store their business information on their gadgets. Anyone close to these employees can get the gadget and log into the organization's network. We can’t tell what they will do with the information that they can access.
ID verification offers immediate biometric identification. This form will only permit authorized personnel to access business information. The organization may also consider making it mandatory for employees to upload their government ID and selfies for authentication. Doing this gives management and assurance. It will be sure of the exact employee doing their work from a remote location.
Verifying your employees using identity verification also helps to strengthen accountability. The verification will help the employer know who exactly logged into the system and at what time. In case issues are arising from this person's activities, it becomes easy to apportion the blame and demand accountability. Contrast this to a situation where the employer does not have an idea about who uses the system.
Remote Hiring
Social distancing requirements due to the pandemic are shifting hiring online. Hiring people through the internet is very risky. To mitigate the risk, businesses are resorting to platforms such as Skype and Zoom. These platforms assist in interviewing and hiring people for distance working opportunities. The hiring process depends on what these interviewees present.
There is a chance that the interviewees can present fake documents to secure the job. There is also the possibility of a fraudster posing as an interviewee to manipulate the system. Businesses are using ID verification to conduct due diligence on prospective interviewees.
Through OCR technology, businesses can extract data from documents presented by the interviewees. They then use this data to establish if the documents are authentic.
If the interviewee is a fraudster, the ID verification will unmask them. This is helpful because it is a proactive way of preventing fraud. ID verification can help catch suspects even before they pose any harm to the business. The verification also enables you to hire safely online and protect the business from fraudsters.
Driving Digital Identity Certainty
ID verification is helping remote workers learn who they are in communication within real-time. They are doing this through the help of the face verification solution. This tech uses 3D liveness detection. This feature can detect the real identity of the person they are communicating with. The technology also helps in monitoring high-risk business transactions. The goal is to ensure these transactions follow the AML regulations.
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