Eight years ago, I was having dinner with one of my oldest friends in a Hong Kong restaurant. He had just had his mBanking app hacked and all his money was gone.
Because I had been in the security industry for so long, and at that time served on Kaspersky’s Board of Directors, he wanted my input.
There wasn’t much I could tell him or a solution I could offer, except some advice as to the best mobile security practices he could implement. What I didn’t know at that moment was that just some years later, I’d be working on a mobile authentication solution I was sure could change the world.
To this day, I credit this event with the creation of Benefit Vantage Limited in 2014, and IPification in 2017.
In the end, his bank refunded him the money, but the event stuck with me. Nothing is ever as real as when it happens to you or someone very close to you. And judging from the statistics, this was about to happen often.
Since 2013, the number of mobile cybercrime has been on a constant increase. As one of the most technologically advanced regions in the world, Asia Pacific is experiencing a 168% increase year on year in cyberattacks.
Thankfully, today I can offer more than just advice - the one-click mobile authentication, user verification, and fraud prevention solution, IPification, that has a coverage of more than 1.5B mobile users globally.
Let me tell you how we got there.
Life in the Mobile-First World
In a time where SMS-OTP two-factor authentication was but the only authentication method available to the masses besides passwords, we founded Benefit Vantage Limited with the idea of developing IPification, a client-focused custom made innovative solution for mobile identification.
We started by analyzing the current cybersecurity landscape only to realize two things:
When everything was going mobile-first due to the skyrocketing of mobile users, including web development, eCommerce, social media content and video production, cybersecurity wasn’t.
At the time, cybersecurity solutions compromised between security, great user experience and data privacy. There was no option that offered all three.
That’s when we knew we wanted to be part of the change.
After three years of development, we launched IPification in 2017 and patented our technology in the US, UK, and Hong Kong.
IPification is designed to work on mobile phones using the mobile IP address, SIM cards and the mobile network operator structure to verify users’ identities. As people increasingly move away from computers to mobile phones, effective mobile authentication becomes imperative.
And what makes for an effective mobile authentication solution? An authentication solution that is secure, seamless and respects user privacy!
To implement IPification, mobile operators only need to install our GMID-BOX on their networks to enable IPification for their subscribers. Any service provider can then integrate IPification authentication in their mobile app to enable their users to register, login and verify transactions within milliseconds and after only one click.
With no additional development work, mobile network operators get to strengthen their key position in mobile identity and open up new revenue streams by monetizing each authentication.
Service providers enable a frictionless onboarding user experience thereby increasing their user adoption, retention and engagement rates while the users stay satisfied with a secure, yet seamless authentication solution.
We spent the following few years working on partnerships with mobile network operators and service providers globally, and I’m proud to say that IPification today is live with 35 telecom operators in 20 markets reaching more than 1.5 billion subscribers.
In 2021, we are experiencing explosive growth with more than 45 mobile network operators in the assessment phase, including one of the biggest ones in Malaysia, a new market we’re about to enter.
Working Towards a Passwordless Future
What’s next? We believe in the passwordless future and we work hard with mobile network operators and service providers to make it happen.
Our vision is to establish a secure and user-friendly ecosystem around the IPification technology with the user in the centre of all developments. We plan to accomplish this by enabling secure authentication for 3 billion smartphone users and 1 billion IoT devices in the next five years, becoming a partner of choice for the top 100 telecom operators and serving 10,000 enterprises and developers in ten different segments by 2025.
Are you ready to join the mobile authentication revolution?
This content is provided by Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC).
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