Multi-factor Authentication (2FA) has long been the standard for securing accounts. It can block 100% of bot attacks and 99.9% of bulk phishing attacks. However, something you might not have thought about is how 2FA can increase mobile registrations and deliver a seamless onboarding experience.
Telesign commissioned a study on how users want to be reached and not surprisingly SMS overwhelmingly won. More important insights though were the delivery and open rates for business communications through SMS, push and email.SMS messages to a valid phone number have a 100% deliver rate and a 98% open rate, usually instantaneously. Looking at e-mail, those messages have a 54% deliver rate on mobile. This could be for a variety of reasons, many users have a second or third e-mail that they use for account registrations. Often times they are not linked to a user’s phone. Those that do arrive have a 20% open rate at an average time of more than six hours after the original communication was sent.
The numbers for push are even darker, as low as 29% of notifications will make it to a user’s cell phone and as low as 6% will ever be opened. This stands to reason that if your business is looking to onboard users quickly, effectively and securely, the obvious answer is using 2FA with a one-time passcode (OTP) sent over SMS.
Multi-factor Authentication Benefits Transcend Security
Unlike e-mail addresses, most end-users rely on one cell phone number. Looking purely at the number of clicks; an SMS OTP verification code will reach a user much quicker than an email. Eliminated are the steps of opening the right mailbox, opening the message and making use of the famously difficult copy/paste function on a touch screen. Most modern operating systems can auto-populate OTPs directly into the text box on your application’s registration portal.Ignoring all of the obvious security benefits of using a phone number as a trust anchor, it is also better for your company’s bottom line to get as many secure and legitimate users on your platform as possible and eliminate any risk of friction and churn.
Telesign has been connecting and protecting online experiences for over 15 years. We support 21 of the 25 largest web properties in the world and we’re prepared to help you.
Contact Telesign now and learn more about how phone number verification is the fastest, most effective way to onboard users and keep your platform safe.
