IBM on Thursday announced it will add behavioral biometric analysis to its digital banking-fraud-prevention solution, IBM Security Trusteer Pinpoint Detect. The enhancement comes courtesy of IBM’s billion-dollar acquisition of security innovator Trusteer in 2013. With the addition of behavioral biometric technology, IBM’s security solution will be that much more effective against fraudsters using stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access to bank accounts. “Given enough time and resources, cyber criminals can defeat passwords and security questions,” says Ravi Srinivasan, VP of strategy for IBM security. The difference is that behavioral biometrics is “based not on knowledge, but behavior.”
Using gesture modeling, which tracks, studies, and analyzes behavior of authorized users, the technology develops an increasingly accurate profile of what authorized, legitimate behavior looks like. This means that even with a user’s credentials, a fraudster will be unable to gain access unless they are able to replicate the way the user typically logs on and navigates the website.
Ayelet Shomer, IBM’s director of strategy and offering management, demonstrated IBM Security Trusteer at FinovateFall 2016.
Even if a fraudster was able to mimic a user’s mouse and click behavior, as the company’s financial crime-prevention strategist, Brooke Satti Charles told Fast Company, the technology is sensitive enough to detect “suspiciously identical” behavior. She compared this to a forged signature that may appear legitimate, but may include features that are incidental rather than part of a range of behaviors such as a random click or mouse movement. Charles added that the solution notes suspicious activity but does not automatically “lock out” users, ensuring a smooth experience for users while security administrators investigate on the backend. She also pointed out that Security Trusteer Pinpoint Direct focuses on patterns of movement on a page, not which pages are accessed, so visits to new areas of a website are not flagged as suspicious.
Founded in 1911 and based in Armonk, New York, IBM demonstrated its Security Trusteer technology at FinovateFall 2016. The company nicknamed “Big Blue” has more than 300,000 employees and 2015 revenues of more than $81 billion.
Not to be outdone by the notoriously clever Tweeters of Finovate, the attendees of 
