Australia hotbed for cybercrime; new report shows identity spoofing as most prevalent attack vector in the ANZ region

10/22/2018

SYDNEY and HONG KONG —LexisNexis® Risk Solutions today at Sibos, the world’s premier financial services event, released its cybercrime insights report for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

The report was created using statistics of actual cybercrime attacks originating to and from the ANZ region, during April to June 2018. These results are the most current available. The ThreatMetrix® Digital Identity Network® (“The Network”) detected the attacks during real-time analysis and interdiction of fraudulent online payments, logins and new account applications. 

The Network analysed over 81 million ANZ transactions, revealing that at 138 per cent the growth in the percentage of financial services attacks originating from ANZ is higher than any other region around the world.

Out of the 81 million ANZ transactions analysed, more than 16 million bot attacks occurred in the region, a 33 per cent increase when compared to Q1 data. This indicates a ramping up of cybercrime in ANZ and perhaps coincides with the advent of the New Payments Platform (NPP).

Cybercrime costs global markets over US$600 billion, or nearly 1 per cent of global GDP last year. The growth of new technologies, incomplete risk management systems, inefficient risk detection processes and the prevalence of bad actors leveraging underground markets, as well as digital currencies, all contribute to this global challenge. Australia has appeared in the list of top 10 cybercrime attackers 9 times in the last 14 quarters between 2015 to the second quarter of 2018. The report reveals that attackers are seeking out regions on the opposite side of the world. The results show that Australia ranks as a top 5 attack destination from bad actors in the U.S., U.K. and China in the analysis of this most current data set.

In addition, 599 sanctions violations events occurred from countries on the U.N. sanctions list and that were using a proxy IP in Australia or New Zealand. In other words, bad actors were attacking countries, pretending to be from ANZ.

“Criminals are targeting financial institutions where they are weakest – their customers,” said Thomas C. Brown, senior vice president, U.S. Commercial Markets and Global Market Development, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “If a bank customer’s identity has been spoofed, the likelihood of fraudsters or illicit financiers gaining access to bank systems to conduct account takeover or account login attacks or money laundering is high. When the right technology, data and analytics are leveraged, though, banks are able to more accurately identify and stop bad actors while enabling legitimate customers to have a low-friction banking experience.” 

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.