Security News > 2023 > July > Cybercriminals can break voice authentication with 99% success rate

Computer scientists at the University of Waterloo have discovered a method of attack that can successfully bypass voice authentication security systems with up to a 99% success rate after only six tries.

Voice authentication - which allows companies to verify the identity of their clients via a supposedly unique "Voiceprint" - has increasingly been used in remote banking, call centers and other security-critical scenarios.

The Waterloo researchers have developed a method that evades spoofing countermeasures and can fool most voice authentication systems within six attempts.

In a recent test against Amazon Connect's voice authentication system, they achieved a 10% success rate in one four-second attack, with this rate rising to over 40% in less than thirty seconds.

With some of the less sophisticated voice authentication systems they targeted, they achieved a 99 % success rate after six attempts.

Kassis' supervisor, computer science professor Urs Hengartner added, "By demonstrating the insecurity of voice authentication, we hope that companies relying on voice authentication as their only authentication factor will consider deploying additional or stronger authentication measures."

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/07/06/voice-authentication-insecurity/