LexisNexis® Risk Solutions releases its biannual Cybercrime Report, which tracks global cybercrime activity from January 2020 through June 2020. The report dives deep into how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global digital economy, regional economies, industries, businesses and consumer behaviour.
The period has seen strong transaction volume growth compared to 2019 but an overall decline in global attack volume. This is likely linked to growth in genuine customer activity due to changing consumer habits.
Mobile device transactions
The LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report analyses data from more than 22.5 billion transactions processed by the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network®, a 37% growth year over year. Mobile device transactions also continue to rise, with 66% of all transactions coming from mobile devices in the first half of 2020, up from 20% in early 2015. The Digital Identity Network® also notes an uptick in transactions from new devices and new digital identities.
They attribute this to many new-to-digital consumers moving online to procure goods and services that were no longer available in person or harder to access via a physical store, during the pandemic. The Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA) saw lower overall attack rates in comparison to most other global regions from January through June 2020. This is due to a high volume of trusted login transactions across relatively mature mobile apps.
Financial services organisations
The attack patterns in EMEA were also more benign and had less volatility and fewer spikes in attack rates
The attack patterns in EMEA were also more benign and had less volatility and fewer spikes in attack rates. However, there are some notable exceptions. Desktop transactions conducted from EMEA had a higher attack rate than the global average and automated bot attack volume grew 45% year over year.
The United Kingdom (U.K.) is also a particular pain point. The U.K. originates the highest volume of human-initiated cyber-attacks in EMEA, with Germany and France second and third in the region. The U.K. is also the second largest contributor to global bot attacks behind the U.S. One example of a U.K. banking fraud network saw more than $17 million USD exposed to fraud across 10 financial services organisations. This network alone consisted of 7,800 devices, 5,200 email addresses and 1,000 telephone numbers.
Human-initiated attack rate
Additional Key Findings from the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report:
Decline in attack rate – The overall human-initiated attack rate across the Digital Identity Network fell through the first half of 2020, showing a 33% decline year over year. The breakdown by sector shows a 23% decline in financial services and a 55% decline in e-commerce attack rates.
Latin America experienced the highest attack rates of all regions globally and realised consistent growth in attack rates from March to June 2020. The attack patterns in North America and EMEA had less volatility and fewer spikes in attack rates from the six-month period observed.
Providing additional context
Financial services organisations experienced a surge in automated bot attacks
Attack Vector Global View - Media is the only industry that recorded an overall year over year growth in human-initiated cyber-attacks. The Digital Identity Network recorded the 3% increase solely across mobile browser transactions. Globally, automated bots remain a key attack vector in the Digital Identity Network. Financial services organisations experienced a surge in automated bot attacks and continue to experience more bot attacks than any other industry.
Across the Customer Journey - New account creations see attacks at a higher rate than any other transaction type in the online customer journey. However, the largest volume of attacks targets online payments. Login transactions have seen the biggest drop in attack rate in comparison to other use cases. Analysis across new customer touchpoints in the online journey is included in this report for the first time, providing additional context on key points of risk such as money transfers and password resets.
Changing geographical footprint
During COVID-19 - All industries have felt the impact of COVID-19. There are clear peaks and troughs in transaction volumes coinciding with global lockdown periods. Financial services organisations realised a growth in new-to-digital banking users, a changing geographical footprint from previously well-travelled consumers and a reduction in the number of devices used per customer.
There have also been several attacks targeting banks offering COVID-19-related loans. E-commerce merchants have seen an increase in digital payments and several other key attack typologies that coincide with the lockdown period. These included account takeover attacks using identity spoofing and more first-party chargeback fraud.
Detecting the full spectrum
The move to digital, for both businesses and consumers, has been significant"
“This is the first LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report to include data on the new reality of conducting business during a pandemic,” said Rebekah Moody, director of fraud and identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “The move to digital, for both businesses and consumers, has been significant. Yet with this change comes opportunity for exploitation. Fraudsters look for easy targets: whether government support packages, new lines of credit or media companies with fewer barriers to entry.”
“We need to ensure that all consumers, especially those who might be new to digital, are protected. Businesses must arm themselves with a layered defence that can detect the full spectrum of possible attacks and is future-proofed against evolving threats.”
Global digital economy
“While the face of cybercrime will continue to re-shape to fit the growing global digital economy, the ability for businesses to reliably recognise good, trusted customers must remain constant,” added Dr. Stephen Topliss, vice president of fraud and identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
“We must identify and block fraudsters – whether opportunists or highly networked fraud rings – the moment they transact and knowledge sharing must be as pivotal to global businesses as it is to the cybercriminals that attack them.”
