Last Thursday, the National Fraud Authority published the Annual Fraud Indicator 2013. Please see below for a comment regarding this report from Trusteer, the leading provider of endpoint cybercrime prevention solutions.
The recent Annual Fraud Indicator report states that "Facility (or account) takeover fraud rose by 53% compared with the previous year. This means that those frauds where the criminal requires identity details accounted for almost 2 in 3 (65%) of all frauds recorded by CIFAS in 2012… 8.8 per cent (4.3 million) of UK adults were a victim, with those who actually lost money (2.7 million) losing an average of £1,203 each." These numbers coincide with similar reports from other regions (e.g. in the US the number of people affected by identity theft are over 5%) and with the fraud trends that were observed by Trusteer.
In the last 18 months Trusteer has witnessed a significant increase both in Man in The Browser (MiTB) malware activity, as well as in the sophistication and techniques cybercriminals use to steal credentials and credit card data. As infection rates increase, account takeover fraud, as well as new account fraud, are becoming a top threat for organisations. With a constant increase in the number of attacks aimed at credential theft, perpetrated mainly by phishing and malware attacks, organisations strive to detect, mitigate and remediate these threats as fast and effectively as possible. To do so, a holistic approach which encompasses endpoint security as well as clientless detection and conclusive event correlation is required. Layered security covering PC and Macs, desktops and mobile, client and client-less solutions is what today’s organisations need to effectively combat fraud.