Mitchell Bingemann | January 27, 2009

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24967190-5013040,00.html

CENTRELINK will this year deploy a biometric voice authentication system to identify and manage its clients, after spending several years investigating use of the technology.

Centrelink chief information officer John Wadeson said the welfare agency had been investigating the use of voice authentication since 2002, but was reluctant to use the nascent technology until it could handle the agency's stringent security protocols.  

"We were one of the first organisations back in 2002 to use voice as an online service when it was used to lodge income reports.

"For the past two years we've been playing with voice authentication, but until six months ago it wasn't ready for serious use," Mr Wadeson said.

"Now that it has matured, we have readied our IT systems to support this technology and are all set to go with it this year."

The voice authentication technology, being supplied by Telstra as part of its managed telecommunications services contract with Centrelink, is on trial involving 10 Centrelink employees. But the welfare agency is planning to extend it to the general public.

"We have 10 people in an active trial at the moment and the whole system can be rolled out across the business when we need to. But first we want to test the system further" with more people from the public taking part in the trials, he said.

Trial users must have their identity verified through biometric voice authentication technology before accessing personal accounts. The biometric ID replaces the client number and password system that Centrelink currently uses for client access to their accounts.

On initial set-up of the service, the caller is asked to authenticate their voice by counting from one to 10, in addition to answering a number of "secret questions", Mr Wadeson said. Once the system verifies the user's voice, it is their password.

"It is a bit of a process to record your voice, so the authentication software recognises it. But once you've done it, it's done for good, Mr Wadeson said. "From that point there will be one or two pre-recorded secret questions for a user to answer and then they will have access to the system and their account."

Voice authentication was a more secure method of customer access, as the technology used unique voiceprints and pattern recognition software to verify a speaker, he said.

It relied on the fact that voiceprints, like fingerprints, were unique for each individual. This meant disgruntled spouses or identity thieves would be unable to access a client's account details.

Mr Wadeson said the voice authentication system would not only improve the security of accessing personal details through Centrelink, but would also improve the efficiency of the agency's call-centre operations, which handle some 28 million calls a year.

"Our call-centre staff are flat chat with inquiries about new pensions and advice surrounding the economic situation, so we are hoping this will greatly improve our time delivery," he said.

The voice authentication system is not the only big project on Centrelink's books this year. The welfare agency will also pilot a contactless staff identification card system costing almost $10 million.

The Centrelink Staff ID Card project is tied to the government-wide Identity Management for Australian Government Employee Framework (IMAGE) project, which is being led by the Australian Government Information Management Office.

IMAGE is a whole-of-government framework for public sector employee and contractor identity cards. It will cover specifications for a cross-agency ID card, and the approval process for employees to be given an ID card.

Once in place, the ID card will replace the random number generator security tags currently used by 27,000 Centrelink employees to access the agency's secure databases and network. It will also grant access to the agency's premises.

"We have a huge obligation to protect our customers' private data, so we must have visibility on staff access to ensure it is not used inappropriately," Mr Wadeson said. If the pilot is successful the project will be extended across the whole of Centrelink.