Avaya Invests in Zero-Knowledge Approach to CCaaS SecurityAvaya Invests in Zero-Knowledge Approach to CCaaS Security
Funds to boost Journey’s trusted customer identification capabilities.
September 1, 2021
If contact centers are the front door to customer experience, then security and data confidentiality are the keys. And the old ways of confirming customer identification — like asking mother's maiden name — aren't cutting it, as one leading UC analyst shared with No Jitter. For its part, Avaya is looking to address these security issues with a newly announced strategic investment in identity platform provider Journey.
Recognized for its approach to security as the winner of the 2021 Best of Enterprise Connect Award, Journey provides an entire-system approach, from the network up and including consumer devices, to address the challenge of confirming a customer’s identification, Dave Michels, principal analyst at TalkingPointz, told No Jitter. Using a concept called zero knowledge, Journey allows contact center agents to request, verify, and share sensitive customer information without ever seeing it, Michels explained. “The concept of zero knowledge is established and proven, but it's revolutionary for the contact center,” he said.
Journey accomplishes this by performing a customer-side identification test and passing the pass/fail results to the agent, Michels said. With this approach, “the agent never sees the information, nor does [the information] enter any part of the contact center infrastructure,” he added.
With the integration of Journey’s digital trusted identity platform, contact centers using the Avaya OneCloud CCaaS platform will now be able to enable agents to digitally request personally identifiable information, payments, or electronic signatures from customers, Avaya said. Additionally, Journey provides biometric methods of confirming a customer’s identification, including facial and voice authentication, Avaya said.
Noting the need for such services, Michels said, “contact center security is a ground floor opportunity.” And, while the Journey platform is contact center-agnostic, the investment gives Avaya the opportunity to gain capabilities for its OneCloud CCaaS in particular, he added.
Journey is part of the Avaya DevConnect partner ecosystem. The transaction, terms of which weren’t disclosed, closed in August, Avaya said.
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