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Recently I saw this advert for HSBC mobile banking app which has me a little worried. In the advert the actor logs into his online banking using "Voice Id" (essentially say a secret password and hey presto!)

It worried me for a few reasons:

  1. Anyone in earshot can hear your secret word
  2. Anyone with a recording device can record you saying that word and fool the security system
  3. How accurate can Voice recognition be!

So this leads me back to my questions.. How safe is Voice Recognition ID?

User1
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    potential duplicate: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/129930/voice-biometrics-for-financial-authentication?rq=1 – schroeder Feb 06 '17 at 09:53
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    Funny you ask. Two of my colleagues were bored the other day so they tried bypassing each others' security using crappy cellphone recordings of each other. It worked.

    The saving grace here is the multiple layers of protection you should have in place. Someone must first get past your phone lock, THEN they must perform whatever voice hack they intend to use. Voice alone is clearly weak, so god help you if you're using that to unlock the phone as well.

     – Ivan Feb 06 '17 at 16:36

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The vulnerabilities in this is really similar to facial recoginition, iris scans, and finger prints. In most cases they're easy enough to obtain and use, at least you need to buy wood glue for fingerprints. This just adds another layer of complexity. Johnny's comment is totally accurate. Do not rely on this as your only password.

essefbx
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