London and Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) April 30, 2014
Sphonic, the creator of a Workflow Manager solution for integrating with various Big Data vendors through a single API and Guardtime, the inventor of Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI), formed a partnership to deliver new Audit Integrity Evidence (AIE) service for the Financial Services industry.
Traditionally Financial Services organizations perform “Know Your Customer” (KYC) checks on prospective customers at the point of application. This data is then stored for a period of time to provide evidence to regulators and other parties that appropriate checks were performed on the applicant. To date, these checks have fundamentally lacked integrity, tamper reporting and resilience.
With the growing threat of Identity Theft, particularly with the explosion of digital services, KYC checks should now incorporate non-disputable checks (and subsequently verification and visibility mechanisms) to enable businesses the ability to deliver a fully risk-based approach with a wider range of relevant data items concerning the applicant. These checks, consistent with new privacy and regulatory policies must have assured integrity and tamper resilience. Sphonic and Guardtime address this gap, by enabling businesses to create a non-disputable digital picture of an applicant using relevant and current data sources with a Guardtime Attributed Networking seal, to ensure real-time tamper detection and integrity verification. Based on the foundations of Guardtime Keyless Signatures, this picture is highly differentiated from traditional checks with the contexts of time, identity, and record(s) authentication and without the reliance on cryptographic secrets or trust anchors like trusted administrators or insiders.
The Attributed Networking seal allows for the customer, the provider, or the regulator to independently validate the integrity of the data submitted without relying on the service provider; as received from various 3rd party suppliers to create the non-disputable KYC picture. This solution ensures comprehensive compliance is assured and independently verifiable for financial transaction processing.
With new international and EU-centric privacy standards, Sphonic and Guardtime assure a compliant mechanism for auditors who need proof that the data was not changed or tampered. This approach also enables Sphonic to add value by creating trust in data sources not traditionally used in this environment and by joining up multiple data points, Sphonic and Guardtime now create a clearer picture to enable and trust the acceptance of genuine customers.
With each seal, customer data can be tagged, tracked, and located via Guardtime Videri and GuardView tools to ensure end-to-end attribution. Customers and integrators of these solutions can further leverage Guardtime’s Attributed Networking Security and Networks Operations Centers (SOC/NOC), which can either be delivered as a service or hosted on-premise to collect, monitor, record, schedule, analyze, and/or escrow this information in real-time.
Andy Lee, Founder & Chief Product Officer for Sphonic said, “This exciting partnership with Guardtime enables us to seal the digital picture of consumers our workflow manager product creates adding in an enhanced layer of integrity and auditability irrespective of location or channel.”
Matthew Johnson, CTO for Guardtime said, “Where Financial Service institutions need to create a trusted KYC digital picture, Sphonic has leveraged the power of Guardtime’s Attributed Network Solutions (ANS). Together, we have created the world’s first non-disputable and independently verifiable digital seal for KYC data. This seal provides complete end-to-end chain of custody information essential for auditors, context sensitive transaction records, historical retention requirements, and advanced Big Data security analytics. Guardtime’s ANS technology allows forensic traceability that can be independently verified by any auditor, regulator or law enforcement agency, that the data picture has not been tampered and if it is alerts can be issued.”
The new service from Guardtime will be available through the Sphonic Workflow Manager solution to its clients in the coming weeks.
About Sphonic.com
Sphonic.com is the trading name of Symphonic Solutions Limited. With the growth in e-commerce, mobile payments and consumer wallets, alongside increasing concerns around customer security, the Sphonic.com Workflow Manager platform was created to keep up with the growing demands for digital security. Workflow Manager enables clients to integrate with its innovative big data vendor network through a single API. Sphonic.com also provides professional services and research & development consulting for Financial Services, eCommerce and mCommerce clients globally. For more information, please visit http://www.sphonic.com
About Guardtime
Guardtime brings transparency and accountability to digital society. Founded in 2007, Guardtime invented Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI) - a technology that allows any type of electronic activity to be independently verified using only formal mathematical methods, without the need for trusted administrators or cryptographic keys. Deployed by world governments, KSI provides real-time validation and an independent audit trail for everything that happens in digital society, limiting liability and making it impossible for insiders or sophisticated cyber attackers to manipulate data and cover their tracks. For more information, visit http://www.guardtime.com or info@guardtime.com.