Digital Businesses Thwart a Record 700 Million Attacks on Consumer Transactions in 2017, Reveals New Cybercrime Report from ThreatMetrix

Digital Businesses Thwart a
Record 700 Million Attacks on Consumer Transactions in 2017, Reveals New
Cybercrime Report from ThreatMetrix

In the wake of large-scale data breaches,
massive spikes in downstream attacks are visible before incidents come to light
publicly

Singapore – (January
17, 2018) – ThreatMetrix®, The Digital Identity
Company®, today revealed that 2017 was a record-setting year in the
fight against cybercrime. Based on analysis of real world cybercrime attacks—as
seen across its global network, which analyses 100 million transactions a day—
the ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report
2017: A Year in Review confirmed a 100
percent increase in volume of attacks over the last two years. The good news is
that record numbers of these attacks are thwarted by organisations investing in
innovative, digital-first strategies to protect consumers facing downstream attacks
from large-scale data breaches.

Tweet now: From breaches to bots, insights from 700M
thwarted cyberattacks show how the fight against #cybercrime has intensified.
Read more from the @ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report. http://bit.ly/2CVYzLm

Fraudsters are no
longer looking to make a quick buck from stolen credit cards. Instead, they are
targeting more ambitious attacks that produce long-term profits, leveraging
sets of stolen identity data. This is demonstrated by a highly elevated attack
rate on account creations—the most vulnerable activity. In fact, more than one
in nine of all new accounts opened in 2017 were fraudulent.

ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report 2017 data
also revealed bot activity levels which account for up to 90 percent of traffic
on some retail sites. Even consumers who aren’t directly affected suffer, as
they experience lengthier identity verification by many businesses attempting
to separate legitimate activity from fraud.

Consumers Targeted
Immediately in the Wake of High-Profile Breaches

Cyberattack levels hit
more extreme spikes in 2017 than ever before. These spikes, when aggregated
across thousands of organisations, point to major data breaches—often even
before they have hit the headlines. For example, the ThreatMetrix Digital Identity Network® detected
unprecedented spikes in irregular behaviour immediately after Equifax fell
victim to major incidents.

Every organisation is
a target of serious security breaches, putting the onus on downstream
protections across all websites and applications to stop leaked data from being
effectively used for fraud.

“As attacks intensify,
so does the need for investment in advanced technologies to protect consumers,
including individuals with breached identity and financial credentials,” said
Vanita Pandey, vice president of product marketing and strategy at
ThreatMetrix.  “Analysing transactions based on true digital identity is
the most effective way to instantly differentiate between legitimate users and
cybercriminals. We leave traces of our identity everywhere, and by mapping the
ever-changing associations between people, their devices, accounts, locations
and addresses, across the businesses with which they interact, trusted
behaviour for an individual becomes apparent.”

Changing Consumer
Behaviour and Shifts in Cybercrime Trends Go Hand-in-Hand

Trends in consumer
behaviour influenced cybercriminals’ increasingly complex attack patterns.
Examples of both, as identified by the ThreatMetrix Cybercrime
Report 2017, include:

·  The volume of mobile transactions grew by
nearly 83 percent as consumers embrace
multi-device behaviour, with mobile overtaking desktop-based transactions for
the first time in 2017.

·  Account takeovers attacks increased 170
percent, now taking place once
every 10 seconds.

·  83 million fraudulent new accounts were
attempted between 2015 and 2017.  Fraudsters create complete identities and open
new accounts by quilting together identity data, harvested from
breaches and the dark web.

·  Fraudulent payments increased 100 percent over
the last two years. Fraudsters use a
stolen credit card, or hack into a victim’s bank account, to transfer money to
a new beneficiary.

·  Emerging industries – particularly ridesharing
and gift card trading sites — are particularly susceptible to fraud, as cybercriminals exploit new platforms for
doing business.

·  Hackers are getting even craftier. The Cybercrime Report 2017 confirms that
hackers are layering their efforts to make  them harder for the individual to detect. For
example, social engineering attacks convince
consumers they’ve been defrauded, and persuade them to “secure their account,”
through steps that actually give fraudsters access.

“With the volume and
complexity of attacks increasing daily, businesses need to accurately
differentiate customers from criminals in real time, without impacting
transaction speeds or introducing unnecessary friction,” continued
Pandey.  “By looking beyond static data—and drilling down to the dynamic
intricacies of how people transact online—companies can continue to grow their
digital businesses with confidence.”

To access the
Cybercrime Report 2017 click here.

About the ThreatMetrix
Cybercrime Report
Cybercrime
Report 2017: A Year in Review is based upon
actual cybercrime attacks, detected and blocked during real-time analysis and
interdiction of fraudulent online payments, logins and new account applications
on the ThreatMetrix Digital Identity Network® between January and December 2017.

About ThreatMetrix
ThreatMetrix®, The Digital Identity Company®, empowers the global economy to
grow profitably and securely without compromise. With deep insight into 1.4
billion anonymised user identities, ThreatMetrix ID™ delivers the
intelligence behind 100 million daily authentication and trust decisions to
differentiate legitimate customers from fraudsters in real time.