During the pandemic, cybercrime increased on an unseen level, and the resulting need for fraud prevention security has skyrocketed as well.
In recent years, the threat of cybercrimes against organizations from hackers and online fraudsters has increased significantly. Technology continues to advance at an incredible rate, and so do fraud techniques and the necessary measures to stop attacks.
While nations across the world were busy trying to deal with a pandemic on the scale of which we’ve scarcely seen before, fraudsters and cybercriminals were having a field day. They saw it as an opportunity where everything was on the table to gain, and the risks of being caught were at an all-time low.
Since then, fraud prevention experts like Fraud.net have been quick to rise to the challenge of protecting companies against the ever-present attacks, but it’s a fight that is ongoing and continually evolving.
Below, we’ll look through how some of the most common cybercrimes are advancing in frequency, and what fraud prevention trends will evolve to stop them.
Phishing
Phishing is at an all-time high, and is still one of the most successful threats when it comes to online fraud.
The most common companies impersonated by phishers are Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Paypal.
Even after companies worldwide began implementing security tactics like hardware-based authentication and awareness training, the phishing threat has only continued to increase. Google’s threat analysis group was at one point blocking around 800 million COVID-19 themed phishing emails per day.
Even now, security experts are working to develop new training methods to create an awareness that will serve as the front line of defense against phishing attacks. By 2022, we expect phishing to be an even greater threat than it is today.
BEC Attacks
BEC attacks (Business Email Compromise attacks) have increased at a rate greater than 2,370% since 2015, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The way it works is a cybercriminal sends a company’s employees emails while impersonating supervisors, the CEO, vendors, or other trusted names within the company. Once in, they request apparently legitimate transactions or business payments. The email will look authentic and seemingly be from a known authority figure, so the employee will often feel compelled to comply with the request.
It’s not always money that the fraudster is after, either. Sometimes, they’ll ask for the employee’s personal information, perhaps their social security number or wage and tax forms.
Most BEC attacks don’t involve the use of any malware. They’re simply based on social engineering techniques, making them impervious to antivirus programs and spam filters.
Awareness, again, is the front line of defense, and we expect companies to invest more in security training and awareness campaigns in the near future.
We also expect a greater implementation of multi-factor authentication across companies throughout 2022. Many of the most popular frauds involve identity theft or impersonating people of authority, and multi-factor authentication is becoming more and more of a necessity.
Data Breaches
A data breach is when a fraudster compromises your company’s confidential, sensitive, or protected information.
In the first quarter of 2020 alone, data breach incidents increased by 273%. In 2021, while that rate of increase has slowed, incidents continue to be more and more common.
In terms of impact, data breaches can be and often are incredibly disastrous for the affected business. After a data breach, 25% of small businesses file for bankruptcy, and 10% go out of business completely.
The information that gets compromised during one of these attacks could be localized information that only harms the business, or it could be customer data that affects thousands or even millions of people who’ve interacted with a business before the attack.
Data breaches are a common source for credit card theft, as customer information is stolen and sold on the dark web to would-be fraudsters. The chain of devastation that follows can go on to affect even more individuals and more businesses via chargebacks.
We expect that the next year will see a major increase in procedural updates to better control possible data leaks and accompanying employee education to ensure those procedures are followed. We also anticipate a more robust implementation of high-grade data encryption and multi-factor authentication for data access.
Protecting You from Fraud in 2022 and Beyond
At Fraud.net, we have some of the most experienced fraud prevention experts out there working to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals and fraudulent scheming.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one fraud prevention solution that will protect your company from phishing scams, BEC attacks, data breaches, and more, sign up for a free demo today and find out why we’re the best at what we do.