Online Info Blog: Tips on protecting yourself from fraud

Fraud prevention is one of our primary and constant concerns in today’s world where modern technology reigns. Follow these simple steps to help keep you fraud-free:

1. Be sensitive and suspicious enough in giving your personal information to a person or organization you are dealing with online. Fraudster tricks their victims into revealing confidential information using an ample amount of information they have on you.

2. Any online account you have will definitely have a password to prevent unauthorized people from modifying your account. In this case, it is wise to choose or generate a password that is strong enough and cannot be easily guessed by anyone.

3. ATM’s or cash machines are a popular method of withdrawing money. It is of great help but there are also various ways in which ATMs can be used to work against us. Thus, it is better to become extra careful in using ATM’s or cash machines because there’s a possibility that an installed device are attached that clones or traps your card. Based on studies, around 100,000 people a year fall victim to fraud related to skimmed or cloned debit and credit cards.

4. Many fraudsters will send an email claiming that they are from the bank and will require you to click a link and follow a certain instruction, when incident similar to this happened, ignore it the email.

Online Info Blog: Don’t Let Anyone Steal your identifiable information

Data Privacy Day, an international effort to highlight the importance of protecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust, will be Jan. 27. According to a survey conducted by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Zogby International, only 26 percent of Americans felt “their home computer was safe from viruses,” while only 21 percent felt safe from hackers.

Every year we see hundreds of data breaches along with hundreds of millions of records compromised. The responsibility of keeping online data secure is shared both by businesses and consumers. The Better Business Bureau offers some suggestions for consumers concerned that their PII has been stolen:

-- Do not take a “wait and see” approach as you may have done with breaches involving credit card data. You must act quickly. Breaches involving Social Security numbers have the potential to be far more detrimental to victims, and the damage can be difficult to repair.

-- Consider taking a preemptive strike by freezing your credit reports. This will not impact existing credit cards and financial accounts, but will create a roadblock for thieves seeking to create fraudulent accounts using your personal information.

Online Info Blog: Fraud On The Rise

Above all else, hackers are all about the money. New research from cybersecurity and application delivery solutions provider Radware revealed that the top motivation behind cyberattacks is ransom, followed by insider threats, political hacktivism and competition. The biggest challenge in combating cyber ransom, Radware’s Global Application & Network Security Report 2016-2017 report noted, is that ransom is not only easy, but also every attack has its own vector, technique or angle. With hundreds of encrypting malware types available to cybercriminals today, the individuals perpetrating these malicious attacks are able to leverage various networks and applications to demonstrate their power and capabilities.

“One thing is clear: Money is the top motivator in the threat landscape today,” Carl Herberger, VP of security solutions at Radware, explained. “Attackers employ an ever-increasing number of tactics to steal valuable information, from ransom attacks that can lock up a company’s data, to DDoS attacks that act as a smoke screen for information theft, to direct brute force or injection attacks that grant direct access to internal data.

“Our report shows that most organizations are still not prepared to fend off many of the more sophisticated attacks. There is a vast market for mitigating attacks in progress and for defending against threats, both new and established, that grow in severity by the day. From our Emergency Response Team to our extensive products and services, Radware stands ready to guard organizations’ data, systems, and customers from harm,” Herberger continued. Last year saw a significant surge in the number of extortion threats, with the majority (56 percent) of the 600 organizations surveyed by Radware admitting that they have fallen victim to a cyber ransom attack and 41 percent identifying ransomware as the biggest cyber threat.

Online Info Blog: Cyber Deterrence

Cyberattackers pose many threats to a wide range of targets. Russia, for example, was accused of hacking Democratic Party computers throughout the year, interfering with the U.S. presidential election. Then there was the unknown attacker who, on a single October day, used thousands of internet-connected devices, such as digital video recorders and cameras compromised by Mirai malware, to take down several high-profile websites, including Twitter.

Deterrence focuses on making potential adversaries think twice about attacking, forcing them to consider the costs of doing so, as well as the consequences that might come from a counterattack. There are two main principles of deterrence. The first, denial, involves convincing would-be attackers that they won’t succeed, at least without enormous effort and cost beyond what they are willing to invest. The second is punishment: Making sure the adversaries know there will be a strong response that might inflict more harm than they are willing to bear.

Cybersecurity aids deterrence primarily through the principle of denial. It stops attacks before they can achieve their goals. This includes beefing up login security, encrypting data and communications, fighting viruses and other malware, and keeping software updated to patch weaknesses when they’re found.

Online Info Blog: Visa will buy CardinalCommerce

Cardinal’s payments platform analyzes 400 points of data in each online transaction to reduce fraud. “The acquisition will enable more secure, seamless payments, whether made through a browser, mobile app or connected device, and will help Visa’s clients and merchant partners accelerate digital commerce,” Visa said in a statement. Visa already provides Cardinal’s services to merchants and acquirers through its CyberSource merchant and acquirer unit. Visa says its global business will help Cardinal expand its international client roster.

“By helping merchants, acquirers and issuers better distinguish between good and bad transactions, Visa is in an even better position to strengthen consumer trust in digital payments, help merchants grow their businesses and accelerate innovation in commerce,” says Mark Nelsen, senior vice president of risk and authentication products at Visa. CardinalCommerce aims to improve communication about consumers between online retailers and banks, thus making it easier to authorize online purchases.

CEO Mike Keresman said in July that Cardinal holds 63 patents, all proprietary inventions that the company developed. Among retailer clients, he says, there often is a divide between what they know about a consumer and what a financial institution knows. Retailers typically have one set of data about a customer, while banks have their own data. Cardinal’s payments services marry those data sets so that online retailers and banks can have more confidence that online transactions are legitimate.

Cardinal’s payments platform analyzes 400 points of data at each transaction to reduce fraud. Keresman says the company monitors 750,000 merchant identification numbers, which are what banks and other financial institutions use to identify businesses; plus bank identification numbers, which are the first six numbers of a credit card used to identify the issuing financial institution. Together these ID numbers help to verify a customer’s identity when they make an online purchase.