tunnistustel

Tunnistustel is a Finnish term used in information security and telecommunications to describe methods for confirming a person's identity through telephone or voice channels. The term does not refer to a single standardized technology but to a family of practices that leverage telephony in remote authentication. In practice, tunnistustel can involve checking the caller's number, asking knowledge-based questions, delivering one-time codes via voice or text, or using an interactive voice response IVR system to guide the user through authentication. Some implementations also employ voice biometrics to compare the caller's voice with a stored model.

Use cases include online banking, government digital services, and customer portals where the user initiates access from a device not linked to the service, or where a quick verification step is desired. Tunnistustel is often used as a factor in multi-factor authentication, sometimes as a stand-alone step for low-risk tasks, depending on risk assessment.

Security considerations: while tunnistustel offers broad accessibility, it introduces risks such as SIM swap, caller ID spoofing, interception of codes, and social engineering. Security measures include combining telephony verification with other factors, implementing liveness checks for voice, rate limiting, strong authentication policies, and prompt revocation of credentials. Usability and trust depend on clear user guidance and robust process design.

Standards and regulation: there is no universal standard for tunnistustel; practices align with general principles of identity verification and two-factor authentication, and in Europe may intersect with PSD2 strong customer authentication requirements when used for financial services.

Etymology: created from tunnistus (identification) and tel (telecommunications).