The 1Kosmos BlockID mobile app creates a paradigm shift for the travel industry by streamlining the entire travel journey and eliminating any risk of fraud on the travelers' and employees' sides, including identity fraud.
The travel industry suffers...
Security Security Security has to be the travel industry's motto. Unfortunately, as of today, the industry is defrauded of billions of dollars every year because of illicit actions perpetrated by very savvy con artists and hackers.
The use of stolen or fake credit cards attached to identities backed by stolen or fake documents such as driver's licenses for booking flights and hotel rooms is the most common cause for airline and hospitality fraud on a global scale.
Travel industry employees are vulnerable to the scams of fraudsters, especially when it comes to email phishing scams. Phishing emails, impersonating their employer, trick employees into giving away their system login credentials.
Intermediaries, like travel agencies are not necessarily above suspicion. Some have been identified as charging customers cancellation fees under the pretext of major airlines and hotel chains, and further fabricated stories to those major companies about why tickets and stays were cancelled.
The travel industry is also known for having low standards regarding data and transaction security, from storing customers' data in centralized systems to transacting via simple and easily hackable point of sale machines. Each year, airlines and hotels face major data breaches. Then adding weak monitoring of employees and vendors that interact with their booking platform becomes a recipe for disaster to happen again.
... And the traveler loses trust.
While the travel industry remains the victim of criminal activities, the consumer remains the collateral victim of this criminality.
Consumers are likely the easiest to fall prey to the scams of fraudsters. From email phishing scams, to stolen credit cards and mobile devices, there are innumerable ways consumers can be duped into giving away private information to hackers. Those situations create much anguish and erode the reputation and credibility of the travel industry's players.
Each time a data breach occurs, hundreds of thousands if not millions of airlines and hotels customer accounts are hacked, and thousands of flights and hotel stays are booked using the stolen data at the expense of the customer.
Loyalty miles and points are also the targets of criminals, because they lack the security and safety measures that money has. All a hacker requires is to access the customer account before booking tickets, hotel accommodation, or any other services proposed as rewards without having to go through a payment gateway.
Sometimes, after an online search to find the cheapest flight to a destination, the consumer finds a website with a great deal. The consumer pays with a credit card and shortly after making the payment, he or she receives a call from the company asking you to verify your name, address, banking information or other personal details – something a legitimate company would never do. Do I need to say more...?
To create trust in the relationship between a travel company and a traveler for all booking purposes and more. Also, to mitigate internal fraudulent issues between a travel company and its employees.
Leveraging the BlockID Private Blockchain Ecosystem entails storing the traveler's biometric information in a virtually incorruptible system to ensure the traveler is who he or she says he or she is at all times throughout the process. Customers' data stored in our distributed ledger isn't subjected to data breaches.
The immutability of a distributed ledger is leveraged to record service provider-customer interactions. The document can never be modified, leaving an auditing trail, and therefore creating trust between all parties involved.
“Cybercrime is a daily threat to every organization and government across the globe...These Verizon solutions (powered by 1Kosmos BlockID) offer a significant step forward in cybersecurity protection.”
Alex Schlager, Executive Director and Chief Product Officer of security services at Verizon Business