BEC attacks rose 72 percent in 2022 with smaller businesses in the firing line
Business Email Compromise attacks increased dramatically last year with a 72 percent rise year-on-year over 2021.
The 2023 Email Security Threat Report from Armorblox shows high volumes of language-based and socially engineered attacks targeting organizations of all sizes and across industries.
How to avoid fraud while remaining compliant
The financial technology (fintech) industry is a rapidly expanding web of innovation, but it is also becoming increasingly entangled by challenges posed by cybercriminals. These bad actors threaten both data security and regulatory compliance, which can result in heavy fines for noncompliance.
Such fines pose a significant risk for entrepreneurs seeking to quickly scale their operations, as they cannot afford to be bogged down by regulatory issues. Even established businesses find it challenging to navigate the complex layers of financial regulations, let alone startups.
Payment fraud gets democratized as cybercriminals target consumers via social media
According to a new report, 17 percent of consumers have encountered online offers to commit payment fraud, a symptom of fraud's increasing accessibility and democratization among everyday internet users.
What's more the study from Sift shows 16 percent of consumers admit to having committed, or knowing of someone who has taken part in, payment fraud.
Preventing bank fraud: The role of antifraud technology and human behavior
The requirements and standards for information security are continuously being enhanced and revised, driven by various external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising expertise of cyber attackers. As a result of this cyber arms race, novel methods and vectors of attacks are emerging. In addition, an increasing number of people in the world are utilizing mobile devices and other remote work means.
This poses additional security challenges. Implementing antifraud systems in financial institutions can considerably mitigate the impact of both traditional and new types of fraudulent schemes.
Bad bot traffic up 50 percent as fraudsters target Black Friday
New research from Kasada shows a 50 percent jump in bad bot activity during Black Friday week, with bot operators using customized open-source development tools, headless browsers, and new Solver Services to conduct their attacks at scale.
The report also shows a six times spike in automated gift card lookups this holiday shopping season, a key indicator that fraudsters are using bots to identify and steal gift card balances.
Big but not so clever -- ID fraudsters go for quantity over quality
A new report reveals that 'less sophisticated' fraud -- in which doctored identity documents are readily spotted -- has jumped 37 percent in 2022.
The report from Onfido also shows that while in 2019 fraudsters tended to keep regular office hours, in 2022, fraud levels were consistent across 24 hours, seven days a week. Thanks to technology, fraudsters are more connected across the globe and are able to traverse regions and time zones, and can easily take advantage of businesses’ closed hours when staff are likely offline.
Fraud and ransomware dominate cyber insurance claims
Ransomware accounts for 23 percent of cyber insurance claims, while while fraudulent funds transfer (FFT) accounts for 28 percent according to insurance specialist Corvus, which has released its latest Risk Insights Index.
The impact and consistency of FFT is growing, accounting for 36 percent of all claims in the last quarter (Q3 2022), an all-time high. Indeed this metric has not dropped below 25 percent for the past six quarters.
Identity fraud doubles in crypto and banking sectors
The crypto and banking sectors both experienced a nearly two-fold increase in identity fraud in 2022, according to a new report from verification platform Sumsub.
The report also finds that over half of all fraud cases happened in just five countries: Bangladesh (22 percent), Pakistan (15.2 percent), Vietnam (8.1 percent), Nigeria (5.4 percent) and the USA (5.1 percent).
Top 5 holiday season fraud trends
With International Fraud Awareness Week and the holiday shopping season officially underway, analysts and retailers are diving into customers’ shopping habits. But it’s not just legitimate customers retailers need to be aware of, as fraudsters are just as keen on holiday shopping -- and they're already hitting online stores.
Here are some of the top trends I'm seeing as we enter the peak of the holiday shopping season.
Vendor fraud techniques used to bypass Office 365 security
Financial fraud email attacks are increasing year-on-year at 73 percent, with 44 percent of these representing sophisticated, targeted attacks such as wire, invoice, or vendor fraud, according to a new report from Armorblox.
The research has uncovered two vendor fraud attacks targeting approximately 4,000 inboxes each. In these the attackers used 'Look-alike Domain' attack techniques to bypass Microsoft Office 365 email security and impersonate trusted vendors with emails that looked like legitimate requests for payments.
ID fraud levels still high despite post-pandemic drop
A Freedom of Information request by identity verification company ID-Pal reveals that complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK regarding identity fraud soared over the COVID-19 pandemic, finishing 2020 at 44 percent higher than 2019.
Even as the pandemic came to an end numbers in 2021 were still over 18 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Figures so far this year suggest that if identity fraud continues at the same pace, 2022 will see a 10 percent increase in complaints compared to 2021.
If your name is Michael Smith and you're from Houston you could be a fake
New research from identity verification company Socure looks at patterns surrounding how fraudsters construct synthetic identities to identify factors that may assist in identifying and thwarting this kind of crime.
The study shows that criminals employing synthetic identities do their best to blend them with the overall population. So in the majority of cases, synthetic identities fell into the most common demographics and consumer traits.
Online ad fraud, why it's such a problem and what to do about it [Q&A]
Online advertising is big business and it inevitably follows that where there's money to be made the fraudsters and cybercriminals won't be far behind.
We spoke to Jacob Loveless, CEO of eCommerce specialist Edgemesh, to find out more about why ad fraud has become such an issue and what businesses can do to combat it.
How to select a cyber fraud prevention solution
As large-scale incidents like the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and CAM4 data breach have been increasing, security professionals need to integrate tools that fight fraud into their cyber protection plans. Anti-fraud systems have been protecting cyber environments from account hijacking, identity theft, and fraudulent transactions for many years. However, few people know that there are different types of products with specific characteristics.
As its name suggests, a fraud prevention system is meant to detect and prevent fraudulent activities. Financial institutions were the first to use these systems at the beginning of the 2010s, following large-scale attacks that targeted e-banking systems. Later, other sectors, including e-commerce, client loyalty systems, gaming services, contextual ad platforms, and insurance, implemented anti-fraud solutions too. Fraud prevention systems are pivotal whenever online transactions and trade take place.
UK sees one case of fraud every 85 seconds
A new study finds that £95 ($105) is lost to fraud every second in the UK. This is according to analysis by fraud prevention specialist Outseer of all the reported incidents of fraud to Action Fraud -- the UK's national reporting center for fraud and cybercrime -- between 1st July 2021 to 30th June 2022.
The data shows one case was reported to Action Fraud every 85 seconds and reported losses totalled over £3 billion ($3.31 billion) during the 12-month study period.
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