• Tim Ayling, Director at EMEA Fraud & Risk Intelligence, RSA


• 16.03.2017 01:00 pm
undisclosed

The CIFAs report quantifies something that is already painfully clear, fraud is everywhere. Make no mistake, the internet is the single biggest contributing factor today. People spend so much of their time online and many do so while leaving a trail of personal information behind them – with little or no regard to security or privacy. Cybercriminals are well adept at following this trail of breadcrumbs back to their target, and ruthless when it comes to using this information against them for financial gain. 

Credit card fraud alone is a multibillion pound a year problem. Credit card numbers are everywhere. If you use your card for online shopping, then it is inevitable that at least one merchant will be storing card details with weak or no encryption. Large scale data compromises mean that stolen credit card numbers can be bought in the cyber underground for as little as £1 per card. With this in mind, I strongly urge anyone to have a dedicated online shopping ‘burner’ card, without direct debits attached. This might sound like something from the Wire, but it saves the hassle of updating bills in the unexceptional event your card is compromised.

“Incoming regulations such as PSD2 are there to reduce card fraud rates, but improving collaboration between merchants and banks has enormous potential to reduce online fraud as well. Both parties have access to discrete data which, if shared, would make fraud detection far more effective.