There Was No Sign of Waning Fraud Attacks in 2017, Says ThreatMetrix

Financial-services providers experienced a 105% increase in the fraudster attack rate from 2015 through 2017, reports ThreatMetrix Inc., an authentication and fraud-mitigation provider, in its “Cybercrime Report 2017: A Year in Review,” released on Tuesday.

E-commerce merchants, too, experienced greater fraud, with the log-in attack rate growing by 170% from 2015 to 2017. Another trend is that account creations were the most vulnerable stage in the customer’s relationship, attacked at a rate of about one in nine instances.

“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,” Vanita Pandey, ThreatMetrix vice president of product marketing and strategy, said in a press release.

On a global scale in 2017, ThreatMetrix counted 700 million cyberattacks. There were 1.5 billion bot attacks, that accounted for 90% of daily traffic for some retailers.

The United States continued to be the primary attack destination for criminals, which contributed to the almost doubling of U.S. attack volumes.

San Jose, Calif.-based ThreatMetrix expects more of the same, and some new attacks, in 2018. Among the targets will be 1-click payments and non-traditional gifting, such as digital gift cards and online subscriptions, which will force retailers to better balance their fraud and friction initiatives.

ThreatMetrix also expects digital-only and new industries will be prime targets for criminals. “Fraudsters are capitalizing on new platforms by monetizing credentials between fake driver/rider accounts in ridesharing and creating fraudulent new accounts for phony loan applications that they never intend to repay,” the report said. “The digital-only model of many of these companies make them particularly susceptible to fraud.”