How we communicate is constantly changing through technology. Users interact with businesses using mediums that have only been around for a year, sometimes less. Amazon Alexa, Facebook Messenger, Google Home, and Siri are all examples of conversational apps that clients are using to interact with businesses today. This shift leads to some complications when it comes to internet security, especially in sensitive niches like financial or health services.
If your company fails to secure sensitive user information, you lose brand trust, customers — and money. Privacy is more important than ever in a world where security breaches can happen almost anywhere if you don’t take proper measures.
Thankfully most businesses are sensitive to user security, but this doesn’t mean they can cut any corners when it comes to conversational apps. You are only as strong as your weakest link when it comes to digital security. OneLogin helps you secure every digital link in that chain.
Don’t Ruin The User Experience
The major change when it comes to conversational apps is the switch from a GUI (Graphic User Interface) to a CUI (Conversational User Interface). A good example of a CUI is the screen that pops up when you begin to speak to Siri on an Apple device.
One of the most important concerns when implementing any security measure is the user experience. You don’t want to implement security in a way that will frustrate your user, and make your service more difficult to use. Conversational apps require a slightly different approach when it comes to security measures. It would be unreasonable to try and get Siri to log in your client using a traditional username and password; on the other hand, a short 4-number pincode, or a security question, are more plausible options.
Imagine a user asks Siri or Google Home a simple question like “how much money is in my account?” OneLogin would make it easy to request simple security parameters in order to keep the user’s information safe like asking for a pin code.
Classic Security Protocols
It’s important to secure the network as well, make sure a proper firewall and Web Application Firewall are in place as well as best of class encryption (SSL). Backend service is important when it comes to a conversation-based app. With OneLogin, it’s possible to limit access to only authorized endpoints like Amazon or Google servers, whichever applies.
OneLogin connects every user, device, and app into a deeply integrated system in the cloud; this allows them to leverage identity and access management easily, even using conversational apps like Google Home.
Almost all conversational apps are linked to some sort of account. For Facebook Messenger, it’s their Facebook account, for Siri, it’s the user’s Apple id. This makes it much easier to authorize the person attempting to access private data through a conversational app. Essentially, all you have to do is make sure it’s the right account trying to access the information. If they have permissions, then they can have access.
Despite the simplicity, linking an account to a conversational app presents another obstacle to security. The fact that the account-linking process only happens once means that whoever has physical access to the device can essentially parade around with another person’s identity. This can lead to malicious identity theft, or something as simple as your child accidentally being able to purchase whatever they want under your name.
OneLogin provides the level of security necessary to prevent security breaches like this one even on conversational apps by allowing the device itself to be secured.
Privacy is the Priority
When you utilize conversational apps, you add a third party channel (Amazon, Google, Facebook) between the end user and the business. It’s important to ensure that the third party is not recording and storing the data that your client shares with you or vice versa. This reduces the points a breach in security can happen. If you can’t keep the third part from storing some data, you can still attempt to limit the access to that data in a protective manner.
OneLogin puts security before everything. We are diligent in protecting your user’s private information, as well as your own. OneLogin never records, stores, or shares any private information. All data exchanged between you, and your users is completely protected with secure encryption techniques.
In Conclusion
It may be beneficial (and impossible to avoid) using third-party, conversational applications, but using them can add many security issues. If you utilize OneLogin along with these new conversational apps, you can rest assured that all data that is supposed to be private, will stay private — always. Learn more about them via their YouTube page.
Dil Bole Oberoi
