How to protect your Business online Transactions using OTP Service?

Protect your Business online Transactions using OTP Service

Businesses are using the internet platforms of websites, applications and software for digital activities online. These platforms are available to everyone who uses the internet using the right URL. but the account access is protected using a password that is not enough to secure 100%. Every year there is a huge increase in the number of cyberattacks, data breaches, password steals and more.

According to the Verizon report “Data breach investigation Report” - password-stealing after decoding encryption is not possible and it is very rare to happen. More than 81% of hacking and data breaches happened because of stolen or weak passwords. According to the report, there were 6300 cyber incidents, 1300 data breaches and more than 50 organizations spanning 95 countries. 

To enhance the security of online transactions and business accounts against cyberattacks, adding a two factor authentication via SMS OTP is an efficient and popular approach.

What is an OTP?

OTP or one time password is a secure 2FA technique used to authenticate the online event. It is a secure way to access the business account, and application online. You can add a layer of protection after the static string password. It is a unique numeric/alphanumeric code sent using the application programmable interface(API) each time you do a transaction. The OTP is a time-based authentication number that expires after a time limit or after a single use of it. The OTP service- Authkey.io helps you set up an OTP to your application using suitable channels i.e. via SMS, Voice and Email. Your business application can trigger the OTP every time an online transaction activity occurs. These one time passwords are unique and variable digits with a time limit to expire are hardened to crack as well as break by spammers.  

The online transactions and login activity of business can be safeguarded by adopting the two factor authentication via sending one time password using SMS API. The SMS OTP service provider- Authkey.io is advanced in providing a dedicated account panel where you can check for all the OTP infographics of delivery, failed and latency report on a live basis. 

Benefits of OTP service for business transactions

Add-on over the static password

Business accounts for transactions and sensitive info like finance transfer, business files, etc are protected using the rigid string of characters. Stable static passwords are not meant to offer that much protection. There must be an inclusion of two-factor authentication playing a secondary role to pass the logins and transactions. The cyber security advisors give the recommendation to use a dynamic password i.e. one time password, after a static passcode for a login session. The static passwords are weak in nature and there might be a risk of breaching and easy to guess entity by a person known to you in daily life like a colleague or closure person. The cyber security experts advise you to use the one time password verification process to replace the pins and fixed passwords. The two factor authentication using the OTP service gives you a low budget, efficient and secure solution replacing fixed passwords. 

Defend password Attacks

The account-based fixed passwords are easy to know/guess making it weak to breach using a password generator and password sniffing. The time-based and unique nature of one time password makes it dynamic which is typical to crack. 

The key generators use multiple algorithms to create the one time password. The key generators are designed using artificial intelligence in algorithms so that no one guesses the next outcome. It gives random combinations of numbers that are impossible to guess in a limited period of time, mostly 1 minute.

Hence OTP gives a strong advantage over data breaching and security attacks. It gives strong combat to cyber security attackers. 

Time-based authentication 

The one time passwords are time-based code that expire automatically after a time limit. These are not like the static password that remains forever valid, a one time password gives a time-based validation session.

The OTP code runs out automatically whether it is being used or not. The time limitation technique makes it useless after the time session. The password time synchronization session is kept for a short time i.e. 30 seconds, 1minute, etc. Sometimes SMS fails to deliver the OTP within the time window. Those OTP get expired automatically, and the customer has to trigger the new OTP to continue the transaction. 

Different medium to send, Timely and Securely

One time password is a text that can be sent using multiple channels parallelly or simultaneously. Authkey is a multichannel API platform for sending OTP. You can set up an OTP API for multiple communication channels- SMS, Voice and Email. This will generate and send OTP on SMS and Email parallelly to you. 

Authkey designed a single API for multichannel, you need not worry about the multiple integration composition to your application program. The single API can be composed into any application or software to send OTP on multi channels at any point timely.

Authkey.io offers an enabled fallback feature to resolve the one time password failure situation. 

Variety of used cases for OTP

One time passwords come over the fixed string password in business applications. The SMS OTP is best considered as a two factor authentication technique because of its simplicity and reach to mobile devices. The business-oriented business or customer services are using OTP service to validate the transaction or order. SMS OTPs are used by B2B and B2C to protect a variety of services for example eCommerce order, online payment transactions, account Reset & reactivation, COD confirmation and more. 

Choose from Multiple OTP Generation Approaches

The two factor authentication adds a secure verification connection to the application. Authkey.io generates the OTP using multiple algorithms. The algorithm keeps the password change in a random manner. The one time password authentication is time-based synchronization for its validation. The OTP expires automatically after a time window is set.

Approach 1

Some businesses want to use services more on the safer side. They use their own OTP generator to make a unique numeric code. In this case, a business can go for SMS API that will deliver the OTP to the registered mobile number. 

Approach 2 

Businesses want to take the complete OTP and verification service from the service vendor. The SMS OTP API is triggered and verifies the one time password on the service provider end. 

Moreover, businesses want to join a scalable partner that can offer other related cloud telephony services other than OTP in the future. The business leverages the service provider that delivers the one time password in a 3-7 seconds time span. The best OTP service provider understands your business values to prevent and secure reputational financial loss by offering uninterrupted opt service for secure transactions. 

Written by 

Pankaj Singh

Tech & Marketing Enthusiast