Beyond OTPs: Rebuilding Trust and Security in Digital Authentication

OTP-based authentication is a known vulnerability, yet it’s still widely used.

This week’s headlines have brought long-standing concerns about authentication into sharp focus. Investigations from Lighthouse Reports and Fast Company reveal an uncomfortable truth: One-Time Passcodes (OTPs), whether sent via SMS or delivered through apps, remain a serious vulnerability. And yet, despite years of warnings, the world’s largest organizations, banks, tech giants, and enterprises continue to rely on them.

Why Organizations Still Use OPTs, Despite the Risks

The reasons are clear. OTPs are cost-effective, simple to implement, and familiar to users. But the risks are far from abstract. Codes are often routed through opaque networks of third-party telecom providers, many of which lack oversight and have been linked to surveillance operations and data breaches. These aren’t isolated incidents; they’re systemic flaws. One of the articles detailed how criminal groups are actively exploiting SS7 routing vulnerabilities and telecom reseller loopholes to intercept OTPs at scale.

These interception schemes are not theoretical; they’re already being used to bypass MFA protections, drain accounts, and compromise high-value targets. As regulators and security experts warn against SMS-based MFA, and even app-based codes become targets of interception, the question is no longer if this model is broken, but why it’s still being used.

Why Settle? 

At ValidSoft, we’ve never been satisfied with “good enough.” While others debated patches to an outdated system, we built a new one. Our See-Say® platform removes the fundamental weaknesses of OTP-based authentication, not by eliminating codes, but by transforming how identity is verified.

See-Say® combines real-time voice biometrics, speech recognition, cryptographically generated digits, and digit-based voice authentication into one seamless, secure experience. The user speaks the code aloud, and our platform verifies not just the content of the message, but the identity of the speaker, live and in real time. That distinction is critical.

ValidSoft See-Say® was designed to fix this at the root.
Even if someone steals the OTP, it’s worthless unless the genuine user speaks it in real time. The voice must be authentic, meaning it must pass deepfake and live biometric tests, and must be saying the right cryptographically generated digits in the right order. Otherwise, no access.

What Set Voice-Based OPTs Apart? 

And here’s what sets See-Say® apart from any other biometric solution:
With See-Say®, the user’s live, authentic voice and the spoken OTP are intrinsically and inexorably linked in real time. This bond delivers built-in liveness detection, cryptographic proof, irrevocability, non-repudiation, and data immutability, all in a single, intuitive step. Unlike static biometrics like face or fingerprint, which can be cloned or replayed, See-Say® dynamically binds a one-time credential to the authentic, living, speaking human and the genuine transaction being performed. That’s trust you can’t fake, phish, tamper, or steal.

No “trusted” middlemen.
No resale loopholes.
No chance for deepfakes or phishers to fake your identity.

Wake Up Call

If OTPs still live in your stack, this Bloomberg story is your urgent wake-up call. It’s time to change. Any authentication method that is not intrinsically bound with identity assurance is no longer fit for purpose.

This is not just a step forward in security, it’s a leap forward in trust. See-Say® addresses the dual mandate that today’s digital world demands: securing customer data while preserving a frictionless user experience. We’ve eliminated the trade-off between protection and convenience. And we’ve done so without compromising privacy, usability, or scalability.

ValidSoft is setting a new benchmark for identity assurance. Our technology doesn’t ask users to trust a complex supply chain of unvetted intermediaries. It doesn’t rely on outdated assumptions about network safety. Instead, it delivers authentication that is transparent, accountable, and built around the individual, not the device.

Security should work for users, not against them. With See-Say®, it finally does.