New 2019 Cybercrime Report Tracks Growing Threat of Networked Cybercrime

10/22/2019

WASHINGTON, DC — LexisNexis® Risk Solutions has released its Cybercrime Report providing a comprehensive view into the shifting global fraud landscape from January 2019 through June 2019.

The Cybercrime Report leverages the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network, which is a system built on cross-industry identity intelligence and analyzes millions of transactions in real time daily across billions of devices for thousands of global digital businesses.

For the six month time frame of the report, the LexisNexis Digital Identity Network, recorded 16.4 billion transactions, of which 277 million were human-initiated attacks, a 13% increase over the second half of 2018. The report highlights a shift toward networked, cross-organizational and cross-industry fraud, and gives insight into the evolution of bot attacks targeting new accounts in media and e-commerce.

“Although this report focused on the private sector, the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report is a must read for federal IT managers and law enforcement agencies,” said Haywood Talcove, CEO, Government, LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

“Agencies need to use a layered approach to cybersecurity if they want to remain protected,” said Talcove. “A better solution includes three components: high-level digital identity intelligence, physical identity, and authentication capabilities. These three components will help agencies meet regulatory requirements, improve user experience, and locate evolving fraud. If this approach is executable in near real-time, it allows for more streamlined regulatory compliance processes and reduces friction across the citizen experience.”

Key Findings from the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report:

• Networked Cybercrime – Cybercrime networks emerge when digital identities are associated with confirmed fraud attempts across more than one organization in the Digital Identity Network. Organizations within the same industry, particularly banking, lending and stock brokerage, are most acutely affected. The new report details an example of how the Digital Identity Network tracked one fraudster across three industries and six different organizations (several financial services organizations, a media streaming company and a credit reporting agency) as the fraudster attempted to create new accounts, initiate repeated login attempts and make fraudulent payments in an effort to monetize stolen credentials, launder money and abuse bonus incentives.
• Bot Attacks – Fraudsters have shifted bot attacks to target new account creation transactions, which is the only transaction use case which recorded a growth in attacks during the first half of the year. Fraudsters are using these new account creation attempts to test, validate and build online identities for financial gain. Within media, for example, bot attacks targeting new account creations saw a 65% increase in just six months; The Digital Identity Network revealed a number of bonus abuse attempts where fraudsters attempted to sign up for a number of new accounts in order to capitalize on free trials and streaming bonuses to sell for profit. E-commerce companies also saw bot attacks on new account creations increase 305% and were most prevalent in online marketplaces, virtual gift card companies and ridesharing sites.
• Mobile App Registration – While mobile continues to prove more secure than desktop, fraudsters are seeing new mobile account creations and app registrations as opportunities to intercept one-time passcodes to fraudulently register mobile apps. This provides fraudsters with a wealth of personal information and bank account access. Globally, attacks on mobile apps rose 148% in six months and are skewed towards media organizations, particularly social media and gaming/gambling organizations, where bad actors register for new player bonuses to sell for profit.

“Advances in computer technology and greater access to private corporate entities through the internet have created online marketplaces to share stolen information, such as credit card data and personally identifiable information, plus provide a forum for evolving criminal methodologies,” continued Talcove. 

“While confronting the growing threats posed by automated bots and synthetic identities, the LexisNexis Digital Identity Network analyzes millions of transactions in real time across billions of devices for thousands of global digital businesses, growing more powerful with every new piece of information.  It provides robust digital identity intelligence to help keep pace with emerging trends and tactics employed by increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals, state-sponsored actors and their networks.”

Download a copy of the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report, January through June 2019 here.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data, sophisticated analytics platforms and technology solutions to provide insights that help businesses across multiple industries and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit LexisNexis Risk Solutions and RELX.