Suspected fraudulent digital transactions against businesses worldwide dropped nine percent from the lockdown phase of the pandemic (March 11 to May 18) to the reopening phase (May 19-July 25), noted the quarterly report on global online fraud trends by the Chicago-based transaction security solutions provider.
That contrasts with surveys done by TransUnion for the weeks of April 13 and July 27, which found a 10 percent jump in consumers targeted by digital COVID-19 scams.
“With the rush for businesses to go digital, as many were forced to go completely online almost overnight, fraudsters tried to take advantage,” Shai Cohen, senior vice president of global fraud solutions at TransUnion, said in a statement.
As those businesses ramped up their digital fraud prevention solutions, he continued, the fraudsters took their scams elsewhere.
“Businesses have become a bit more vigilant regarding cybersecurity at the present time,” observed Adam Laub, CMO of Stealthbits, a cybersecurity software company located in Hawthorne, N.J.
“What were layups for bad actors previously perhaps don’t work with the same degree of success because cybersecurity has become more top of mind,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Nevertheless, he cautioned that most organizations still suffer from the same vulnerabilities and exploits they had previously.
“When businesses don’t have their eye on the ball, they are by far the more attractive target,” he added, “but when they do, they’re a much tougher nut to crack for the average cybercriminal.”
Melody J. Kaufman, a cybersecurity specialist for Saviynt, an application and infrastructure security provider in El Segundo, Calif. explained that businesses have quickly adapted their security measures to accommodate remote workers over the last few months.
“This security shift has improved processes and procedures in many areas over organizations including phishing training and awareness,” she told TechNewsWorld. “This level of awareness makes businesses harder targets now.”
That’s not the case with consumers, she continued, who — whether they’re savvy with technology or not — are generally not familiar with the wide varieties of phishing campaigns that exist such as smishing and vishing.
“Bad actors find it easier to weaponize the fear and uncertainty of national events, including COVID-19, and this helps their attacks and scams yield valuable results,” she said.
“Fraudsters enjoy times of uncertainty,” added Trace Fooshee, a senior analyst with the Aite Group.
“The transition from business to consumer targets is likely due to COVID-19 stimulus efforts from national governments,” he explained.
“Because consumers are primed to expect contact of some sort relating to the matter, it gives cyber criminals targets primed to interact with financial information,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“Logistics and insurance organizations have seen a surge of business due to the pandemic and as their workloads increase, they are more prone to failing to identify fraud as they attempt to manage a flood of legitimate requests,” Clements explained.
Meanwhile, in the travel industry, there was an avalanche of disruptions. “That caused the overall number of transactions between consumers and their travel companies to increase exponentially,” Fooshee explained.
“A common assumption is that fraudsters target older generations who are perceived to be less digitally capable,” Gaddis observed.
“However,” she continued, “a potential reason that we found the opposite is the fact that younger consumers are more apt to conduct more digital transactions. Fraudsters tend to go where the transactions are.”
Related Stories
News Alerts
More in Cybersecurity
More by John P. Mello Jr.