Online frauds not only impact enterprises and governments but also increase the risk quotient for the common man. Preventing such cyber attacks is increasingly becoming a big challenge and a definite priority for security experts and governments.
Here are some developments and trends that have shaped the cyber security world in the recent past.
News and trends
- Ransom ware attacks to intensify on medical records: Earlier this year, malware attacks, including the ransom ware variant popularly known as ‘WannaCry’, infected a large number of systems including the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. The overall impact of ransomware ‘WannaCry’ was felt in over 300,000 systems across 150 countries. While such attacks were triggered by human error, cyber security experts expect more focused ransomware attacks on the healthcare industry in the future. In the current year alone, over 151 healthcare services have witnessed security breaches compromising over 1.9 million health records1. Scammers are targeting personal health care records as it gives them insight into sensitive personal information.
- Enhanced creativity used in Phishing attacks: While phishing may appear to be an outdated way used by scammers, there has been an alarming trend of creative ways to persist with phishing attempts. In fact, the 2017 State of the Phish Report2 by IT security firm Wombat Security reveals that 61% of IT professionals admitted their organizations were victims of such creative phishing attacks. Sending fake flight itineraries or pretending to be communicating as travel agents and airlines are now possible phishing activities in the corporate world.
- State sponsored level attacks on the rise: As a new trend, there has been a rise in various state-sponsored groups that facilitate online cyber attacks on rival enterprises and retailers internationally. Security experts believe that such undercover state sponsored frauds can be a big challenge as it becomes increasingly difficult to track, especially if a non-friendly or hostile nation is involved.
Technology advances in combating online fraud
Big Data and ‘Machine Learning’ to combat online fraud: As technology advancements are being used by hackers and scammers to break into even highly secured systems with security breaches, the use of Machine Learning based solutions are likely to offer a comprehensive fraud detection tool.
One of the most well-known fraud prevention companies for e-commerce, Signifyd, along with its behavioral analytics expert Long-Ji Lin, has announced3 commencement on work that will analyze the unstructured data and information of suspected fraudsters and make use of Big Data analytics for resolving fraud detection and prevention challenges. From ‘learning on the go’ to the identification of threats at a faster pace, Machine Learning allows for improved security performance without explicit programming or complex algorithms.
Security experts are making use of new technological advancements to increase security layers, ensuring cyber security measures keep pace with, if not be a step ahead of, online frauds.
For a demo or further information on how we can help integrate voice-based offerings into your fraud prevention strategy, write in at [email protected]
Sources:
- Cyber Security Trends: A Look at the First Half of 2017, by Huffington Post
- 2017 State of the Phish Report, by Wombat Security Technologies
- E-commerce Fraud Prevention Poised for New Wave of Machine Learning Disruption, According to Signifyd’s New Chief Scientist, by BusinessWire
