In a recent post on its website, cybersecurity firm buguroo reviewed the cybersecurity lessons learned over the past year, one made especially unique due to the challenges presented by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Authored by Tim Ayling, Vice-President EMEA at buguroo, “Online Fraud Lessons Learned in 2020” stressed the challenges faced going into the new year due to the dramatic rise in online fraud.
“[I]n the world of online banking fraud there’s a huge amount to be done in order to compete with the fraudsters and comprehensively fight online fraud,” wrote Ayling. Fraud levels “have been grave and unprecedented, as fraudsters sought to exploit the increased use of digital channels such as online shopping as well as the fear and uncertainty everyday life has been shrouded in due to the pandemic.”
Ayling went on to list three main ways that buguroo thinks “COVID-19 has changed the world of online fraud, and what it means for fraud prevention” in 2021.
The first effect the pandemic has had on fraud is the rise in attacks targeting the payments industry, and the increased sophistication of fraud attempts as cyber criminals look to cash in on the growth in online traffic.
“With record numbers of people performing processes like shopping online, we’ve seen a development in the sophistication of fraudster techniques, and in the use of these techniques in combinations seeking to circumvent specific payments security, such as SIM swap scams, as well as social engineering techniques specifically aimed at stealing sensitive information,” explained Ayling.
Just two months ago, buguroo published another blog post (also penned by Ayling) warning of a ‘cyber fraud pandemic’, positing that in addition to technical solutions, we as a society should perhaps examine the problem from a cultural perspective as well.
Ayling also pointed to the growth in popularity of biometrics – and specifically behavioral biometrics – as a foundational part of cybersecurity technology as a result of the pandemic, and finally noted that it’s likely that going forward prevention will “become as much about response as detection” of fraud attempts.
He closed his post on an optimistic note, writing that buguroo is “optimistic that 2021 can be the year financial institutions finally get ahead of evolving forms of fraud and maintain this advantage in order to safeguard customers and their hard-earned money.”
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