Welcome to the October 2016 issue of the Computing Security Newsletter
Fraud is taking off at a ferocious rate. The stats are horrific. It now costs the UK economy £193 billion a year and rarely a day goes by without news hitting the headlines of a company falling victim to a cyberattack. As those with malicious intent continue to hone their skills and increasingly take advantage of the innocent, it is critical that businesses consider how they can stay one step ahead to protect their valuable identity, IP and their customers’ data, warns Nick Brown, managing director at identity data intelligence specialists, GBG.
While businesses are the prime target for these cybercriminals, the real victims of the high-profile data breaches are businesses’ customers themselves, says Brown, who, after putting their faith in an organisation to keep their personal details safe, find out their identities have been compromised. “When a company is hacked, a multitude of sensitive identity data can find its way onto the dark web – where criminals browse, haggle, buy and sell our personal information in an online marketplace. With this in mind, more needs to be done to tackle the escalating problem of online fraud in the wake of these relentless cyber breaches.”
But how? Data transparency can be used incredibly effectively as a way of battling fraud. As Brown points out: “When data is shared freely between the public and private sectors, across geographical and political boundaries and amongst international bodies, a more accurate picture of global fraud patterns can be established. Those with malicious intent are not static individuals – they move around – and unless free-flowing access to real-time information is possible across multiple countries, their criminal history cannot be effectively tracked and they’re free to commit fraud again.”
Identity data intelligence, then, has a huge role to play in uncovering incidences of fraud and even preventing it from occurring in the first place. By using more data, analytical insights and triangulation of multiple identity proofing techniques, when identity theft does happen the effects can be minimised for both the citizen and the businesses who are serving them. “In the battle against fraud, data is good!” Brown concludes. “The more transparent businesses can be with data, the more it can be used to gather insights and intelligence that will stop the bad guys in their tracks.”
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Brian Wall, Editor
Computing Security
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