Data breaches and bots are driving cybercrime surge

From July to September, ThreatMetrix detected more than 90 million attempted attacks across industries, representing a 20 percent increase over the previous quarter. This increase in attacks can largely be attributed to the growing sophistication of cybercriminals and the amount of customer data available for interception.

Fraudsters are using bots and botnets to run massive identity testing sessions in order to penetrate fraud defenses.

In the financial services industry, attacks increased 30 percent over the previous quarter, with more than 15 million fraud attempts. As online lending and alternative payments providers represent significant financial gain for fraudsters, this segment is continuing to experience a very high volume of attacks.

As mobile usage continues to rise, consumers are more connected than ever before, creating new opportunities for fraudsters, who are making the online lending space a target for their attacks. Users are transacting more overseas and across time zones and PII is at risk of interception during these occurrences.

Financial services transactions broken down consist of the following percentages and risks:

• 85 percent of transactions were account logins, with 2.5 percent high risk
• 13 percent of transactions were payments, with three percent high risk
• Two percent of transactions were account creations, with two percent high risk.

Mobile usage has continued to increase at a high rate in recent months – more than 50 percent from this time last year. This trend is expected to continue as devices become more widespread and businesses continue to transition into the digital world. Nearly a quarter of users are categorized as mobile only, which is expected to increase as well.

The top digital nations are the big attack originators. Three of the top five attack originators are from Western Europe – Germany, France and the United Kingdom – which also continues to be one of the most targeted attack destinations. The United States is one of the biggest players in cyber fraud origination, as well as a key target for attackers worldwide.