KBA best practice: get your “good” consumers through quickly

by Guest Contributor 2 min read February 7, 2011

Let’s face it – not all knowledge based authentication (KBA) is created equal. I, too, have read horror stories of consumers forced to answer questions about a deceased relative or ex-spouse, or KBA sessions that went on far too long for anyone’s benefit. I have to attribute this to vendor inexperience and a lack of consulting with clients.

An experienced vendor will use a fraud best practice such as a fraud analytics model to determine that some consumers do not even need questions and then a “Progressive Question” feature, which uses consumer performance on an initial question set to determine if it is necessary for the consumer to answer additional questions. This way, the true consumer completes the process quickly, improving the customer experience.

The product of choice should also use a question mix that balances three factors:

·         how easily the true consumer can answer the question;

·         the fraud separation of the question (effectively the measured delta over time between how well true consumers answer the question vs. how well fraudsters do);

·         how many consumers overall the question can be generated. 

A list of hundreds of possible questions doesn’t mean much if the questions can only be generated for one quarter of one percent of the population, as is the case for something like airplane ownership or pilot’s license. Ultimately, out of wallet questions should be generated for a large part of the population, easily answered by the true consumer but difficult for a fraudster; and not offensive or what a consumer would consider “creepy” (such as their child’s birthday or name). Well designed questions will be personal but not intrusive and mindful of personal relationships that may have changed. 

The purpose of a knowledge based authentication session is risk management and/or consumer authentication for fraud prevention and compliance purposes – not to cause the loss of business because the fraud tool crossed the line in the mind of your customer.

Related Posts

Updated November 17th Related Posts Link to automotive form, business form

Published: April 24, 2025 by Rathnathilaga.MelapavoorSankaran@experian.com

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus at nisl nunc. Sed et nunc a erat vestibulum faucibus. Sed fermentum placerat mi aliquet vulputate. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas ante dolor, venenatis vitae neque pulvinar, gravida gravida quam. Phasellus tempor rhoncus ante, ac viverra justo scelerisque at. Sed sollicitudin elit vitae est lobortis luctus. Mauris vel ex at metus cursus vestibulum lobortis cursus quam. Donec egestas cursus ex quis molestie. Mauris vel porttitor sapien. Curabitur tempor velit nulla, in tempor enim lacinia vitae. Sed cursus nunc nec auctor aliquam. Morbi fermentum, nisl nec pulvinar dapibus, lectus justo commodo lectus, eu interdum dolor metus et risus. Vivamus bibendum dolor tellus, ut efficitur nibh porttitor nec. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Maecenas facilisis pellentesque urna, et porta risus ornare id. Morbi augue sem, finibus quis turpis vitae, lobortis malesuada erat. Nullam vehicula rutrum urna et rutrum. Mauris convallis ac quam eget ornare. Nunc pellentesque risus dapibus nibh auctor tempor. Nulla neque tortor, feugiat in aliquet eget, tempus eget justo. Praesent vehicula aliquet tellus, ac bibendum tortor ullamcorper sit amet. Pellentesque tempus lacus eget aliquet euismod. Nam quis sapien metus. Nam eu interdum orci. Sed consequat, lectus quis interdum placerat, purus leo venenatis mi, ut ullamcorper dui lorem sit amet nunc. Donec semper suscipit quam eu blandit. Sed quis maximus metus. Nullam efficitur efficitur viverra. Curabitur egestas eu arcu in cursus. H1 asdf asdf H2 H3 H4 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum dapibus ullamcorper ex, sed congue massa. Duis at fringilla nisi. Aenean eu nibh vitae quam auctor ultrices. Donec consequat mattis viverra. Morbi sed egestas ante. Vivamus ornare nulla sapien. Integer mollis semper egestas. Cras vehicula erat eu ligula commodo vestibulum. Fusce at pulvinar urna, ut iaculis eros. Pellentesque volutpat leo non dui aliquet, sagittis auctor tellus accumsan. Curabitur nibh mauris, placerat sed pulvinar in, ullamcorper non nunc. Praesent id imperdiet lorem. H5 Curabitur id purus est. Fusce porttitor tortor ut ante volutpat egestas. Quisque imperdiet lobortis justo, ac vulputate eros imperdiet ut. Phasellus erat urna, pulvinar id turpis sit amet, aliquet dictum metus. Fusce et dapibus ipsum, at lacinia purus. Vestibulum euismod lectus quis ex porta, eget elementum elit fermentum. Sed semper convallis urna, at ultrices nibh euismod eu. Cras ultrices sem quis arcu fermentum viverra. Nullam hendrerit venenatis orci, id dictum leo elementum et. Sed mattis facilisis lectus ac laoreet. Nam a turpis mattis, egestas augue eu, faucibus ex. Integer pulvinar ut risus id auctor. Sed in mauris convallis, interdum mi non, sodales lorem. Praesent dignissim libero ligula, eu mattis nibh convallis a. Nunc pulvinar venenatis leo, ac rhoncus eros euismod sed. Quisque vulputate faucibus elit, vitae varius arcu congue et. Ut maximus felis quis diam accumsan suscipit. Etiam tellus erat, ultrices vitae molestie ut, bibendum id ipsum. Aenean eu dolor posuere, tincidunt libero vel, mattis mauris. Aliquam erat volutpat. Sed sit amet placerat nulla. Mauris diam leo, iaculis eget turpis a, condimentum laoreet ligula. Nunc in odio imperdiet, tincidunt velit in, lacinia urna. Aenean ultricies urna tempor, condimentum sem eget, aliquet sapien. Ut convallis cursus dictum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Ut eleifend eget erat vitae tempor. Nam tempus pulvinar dui, ac auctor augue pharetra nec. Sed magna augue, interdum a gravida ac, lacinia quis erat. Pellentesque fermentum in enim at tempor. Proin suscipit, odio ut lobortis semper, est dolor maximus elit, ac fringilla lorem ex eu mauris. Phasellus vitae elit et dui fermentum ornare. Vestibulum non odio nec nulla accumsan feugiat nec eu nibh. Cras tincidunt sem sed lacinia mollis. Vivamus augue justo, placerat vel euismod vitae, feugiat at sapien. Maecenas sed blandit dolor. Maecenas vel mauris arcu. Morbi id ligula congue, feugiat nisl nec, vulputate purus. Nunc nec aliquet tortor. Maecenas interdum lectus a hendrerit tristique. Ut sit amet feugiat velit. Test Yes asedtsdfd asdf asdf adsf Related Posts

Published: March 1, 2025 by , Sirisha Koduri

Discover how token-based authentication works, its types, and why businesses trust it to secure sensitive data.

Published: February 11, 2025 by Theresa Nguyen