Posted on June 28th, 2011 by Dan Rampe
According to Cameron Kerry, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s general counsel, the market for online transactions is predicted to reach $24 trillion ONLY IF users can be convinced the cloud is secure.
Twenty-four trillion is a hard number to wrap your head around. With $24 trillion, you could pay off the national debt and, at a minimum, have enough left over to buy steaks for every dog on the planet. You didn’t really think dogs played cards for stakes, did you?
Anyway…Kerry’s keynote at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in Washington D.C., outlined two priorities for his Department: cyber security and privacy. Kerry pointed out that the principal roadblock to developing new services and achieving the $24 trillion in online transactions was a lack of confidence in security, noting that Citibank, RSA/Lockheed Martin, Sony, Nasdaq, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), PBS, and the United States Senate have all come under cyber attack.
Kerry explained that when credit cards were introduced, they faced similar security concerns. What assuaged those concerns was the introduction of encryption. Advising his audience not to wait for legislation or additional regulations to improve security, he stressed the need to go beyond the standard name/password approach, while at the same time maintaining a “privacy bill of rights,” introduced in the Senate by Senator John Kerry, Cameron Kerry’s brother.
One company has a solution that fits both criteria – and it’s available today. That company is, of course, ThreatMetrix. ThreatMetrix solutions don’t rely on passwords, user names and cookies that could compromise a user’s privacy rights. Yet, its ThreatMetrix Cloud-Based Fraud Prevention Platform, which uses anonymous data from the computer, its connection to the Internet and contextual data from a transaction that can spot a fraudster literally half-a-world away.
Following are cyber security principles the Obama administration has endorsed and Department of Commerce seeks to have in place:
- Instead of the current patchwork of laws that vary by state, breach notification requirements should be standardized and procedures for notifying customers simplified
- Companies should be encouraged to have better data security, especially for power grids, water systems, and other core critical infrastructure
- Increased criminal penalties for hackers
- Encouraging the sharing of information with law enforcement to improve the nation’s ability to detect and prevent cyber attacks
Two more principles that weren’t explicitly addressed by the Department of Commerce or the Obama administration, but should have been:
- As a matter of course, every company doing business on the Web should be required to check out ThreatMetrix
- “Dogs Playing Poker” exhibited as art should be prohibited by law
Tags: bank fraud, CNP fraud, cookieless device identification, credit cards, Device Detection, Device Fingerprint, device fingerprinting, Device ID, Device Identification, fraud prevention, Kerry-McCain Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights, Online Fraud, ThreatMetrix, virtual goods fraud
Posted in bank fraud, Citigroup account hacking, Cloud computing, Cookieless Device Identification, Credit Card Transactions, Device Detection, Device Fingerprint, Device ID, Device Identification, Identity Theft, Kerry-McCain Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights, Law and Enforcement, mobile payments, online banking, Online Credit Card Transactions, Online Fraud, Online Fraud Trends, PC Fingerprint, personally identifiable information, PII, Sony PlayStation, ThreatMetrix, ThreatMetrix Fraud Facts, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted on June 15th, 2011 by Dan Rampe
Actually, ThreatMetrix believes you CAN handle the truth.
Just reach out. It’s a fingertip, mouse-click away, anytime day or night, anywhere.
Need to know what’s really going on in the world of fraudsters, cheats, thieves and scammers? Here’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but….
It’s ThreatMetrix’s up-to-this-instant, exciting, brand-new initiative for tracking fraud-activity trends: ThreatMetrix™ Fraud Facts. Based on evaluations of over 15-million transactions taking place every day, you get a unique peek into the fraudster mindset. Here you discover his/her latest tactics, tricks and dodges, so you can formulate plans and adopt strategies for stopping them. With this information, it’s far easier to cull the criminals hidden among the vast majority of honest customers.
The analysis will cover a range of online fraud, looking at:
• Percentage of Transactions from Compromised Devices
• Percentage of Transactions from Devices that have had Cookies Wiped
• Percentage of Transactions from Devices that are Associated with Multiple Email Addresses
• Percentage of Transactions Flagged as Higher Risk
• Percentage of High-Risk Transactions by Country
• Percentage of Countries with Highest Ratio of High-Risk Transactions
• Mobile Transaction Volumes
• Relative Mobile Transaction Volume by Country
The ThreatMetrix™ Cloud-Based Fraud Prevention Platform is the only global online fraud prevention platform that stops web fraud in its tracks to speed up e-commerce for new account origination, web payments and account logins.
The truth that was only “out there” is now here.
Bookmark it — ThreatMetrix Fraud Facts — and stay way ahead of the bad guys.
Tags: bank fraud, Botnets, CNP fraud, cookieless device identification, credit cards, Device Detection, Device Fingerprint, device fingerprinting, Device ID, Device Identification, fraud prevention, Online Fraud, ThreatMetrix, ThreatMetrix Fraud Facts
Posted in Cloud computing, Cookieless Device Identification, Device Detection, Device Fingerprint, Device ID, Device Identification, Identity Theft, mobile payments, New Account Registration, online banking, Online Credit Card Transactions, Online Fraud, Online Fraud Trends, PC Fingerprint, ThreatMetrix Fraud Facts, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted on June 9th, 2009 by Tom Grubb
Would you feel safe purchasing goods with your credit card from your cell phone? If you answered “yes” then you’re in agreement with about half the respondents in a recent Harris Interactive survey reported by Internet Retailer who consider it “at least somewhat safe” to make a purchase through their cell phone.
Of course that presumes you are willing to overlook the inconvenience factor that goes with entering your credit card number and personal information on your cell phone—which depending on your cell phone can be a minor inconvenience or royal pain. According to the survey, “46% of cell phone owners said that, assuming they could purchase securely through cell phones, they’d be willing to make purchases this way.”
As smartphones like Apple’s iPhone get easier and consumer adoption increases it’s a fair bet that so will online purchases made from smartphones…and online banking…and social networking…and just about any web activity you would typically undertake on your computer today. Etailers and businesses that rely on customers to connect via their computer will undoubtedly invest more in technology to instill trust and confidence in smartphone users so they feel very safe interacting with them via their smartphones. While 46% may seem like a healthy number, I’m sure the survey results made more than a few etailers cringe.
As smartphones take on more everyday computing tasks they are also likely to become a desirable platform for fraudsters. Georgia Tech in its Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2009 predicts as much. According to Patrick Traynor, an assistant professor at the university, “malware will be injected onto cell phones to turn them into bots.” He goes on to say “at this point, mobile device capability is far ahead of security….we’ll start to see the botnet problem infiltrate the mobile world in 2009.”
For now it pays to be extra careful when banking or buying from your smartphone. I’ll have more to say about mobile computing and fraud prevention in the coming weeks.
- Tom
Tags: Botnets, credit cards, fraud, smartphones, survey
Posted in Botnets, Credit Card Transactions, Device Identification, Online Fraud, Online Fraud Trends, Uncategorized | No Comments »
