– Chris Jensen, Financial Services Expert, TeleSign (http://www.telesign.com/), says:

Founded in 1819, BankNewport is one of the oldest mutual savings banks in the United States. This historic institution is providing an innovative security technology to keep its customers protected from fraud. Partnering with TeleSign, a market leader in Internet fraud prevention and Intelligent Authentication, BankNewport has implemented tokenless two-factor authentication to secure online account access for customers.

Continually evolving security threats require companies to adopt a layered approach to fraud prevention. Today, many organizations still leverage low-cost challenge questions, however these questions are easily hacked or socially engineered. Instead of relying on these insecure methods or provisioning hardware to users or maintaining software, BankNewport is decreasing security threats by leveraging a technology that is already part of every user’s life, the telephone.

The phone has become the de facto solution to provide layered security because it is easy to use, easy to deploy, and easy to manage. BankNewport is leveraging TeleSign’s phone-based two-factor authentication (2FA) to effectively protect accounts from compromise by employing the user’s phone as the second factor of authentication. With phone-based two-factor authentication BankNewport maintains higher security without increasing complexity or costs associated with traditional methods of authentication.

How it Works

  • ·         User attempts to sign on with their username and password
  • ·         TeleSign sends an automated voice call or SMS to the phone number on record with a one-time PIN code
  • ·         User enters this one-time PIN code onto the website and is authenticated


“Social engineering has made the answers to challenge questions widely available and easy to find. We provide our customers an extra layer of security without compromising their user experience,” said BankNewport eCommerce Assistant Manager, Sonia Williams. “TeleSign 2FA was easy to integrate and has already reduced our help desk costs and given users confidence that they can securely sign in to their bank account and securely complete transactions.”


The integration of TeleSign 2FA shields accounts from unauthorized logins and secures account access from unrecognized devices. Verifying the user through a personal device, such as the phone, makes for a more secure banking ecosystem, helping financial institutions like BankNewport address FFIEC guidelines.


TeleSign Two-Factor Authentication adds a critical layer of security beyond username and password. By leveraging the phone as an authentication device, TeleSign improves the user experience while reducing operating costs associated with traditional multifactor authentication methods.



About TeleSign
Every second, of every day, TeleSign protects the world’s largest Internet and Cloud properties against fraud. TeleSign Intelligent Authentication provides an easy-to-implement and powerful method for identifying and substantially reducing online fraud and spam using the most widely deployed technology — a user’s phone. The company protects 2.5 billion downstream accounts in more than 200 countries, offering localization services in 87 languages. In 2011, TeleSign ranked #15 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ and was named Visionary in Gartner’s User Authentication Magic Quadrant.


For more information about TeleSign, visit www.telesign.com