Cybercrime Networks: How Businesses Can Join Forces to Beat Fraudsters
But that doesn't mean fraudsters are giving up.
Instead, they're getting smarter — and taking a much more collaborative approach. Shouldn't the businesses they target do the same? And, is a digital identity-based approach to fraud prevention part of the answer?
As it stands now, cybercriminal organizations have adopted the same technologies and organizational efficiencies seen in any modern enterprise. They're also joining forces in expansive global networks that buy, trade and augment stolen identity credentials to perpetrate increasingly audacious cyberattacks — some of them sponsored by rogue nation-states.
A Networked Pattern to Cybercrime
As reflected in the data captured from the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network®, cybercriminal organizations are increasingly working together to target businesses within the same or different industries to maximize the value of such stolen credentials.
This includes coordinated efforts to test stolen identity credentials in one industry for weaponization in another, reducing the likelihood of detection. It can also involve global networks of mule accounts to help fraud groups launder proceeds from their crimes without raising suspicions.
Unfortunately, a go-it-alone approach against this kind of collusion isn't effective anymore. With cybercriminals rapidly federating, a growing number of businesses are deciding they'd better do the same. Here's a look at two of the most powerful ways they're doing it.
#1 Going Wide with Global Teamwork
Take LexisNexis Risk Solutions, for instance. Our customers have long leveraged shared intelligence from thousands of the world's most prominent companies through the Digital Identity Network®. Combined with our device and behavioral analytics, this shared intelligence enables organizations to understand customer behavior to detect and block high-risk transactions without adding friction for legitimate customers.
#2 Going Deep with Industry Consortia
More recently, our Consortium capability allows customers to share information to collectively fight fraud. Consortium, an industry-focused, peer-based intelligence layer compliments the global shared intelligence from the Digital Identity Network®. It enables businesses with common goals, challenges or risks to see greater context within data and make smarter risk decisions in near real time.
The more accurate data shared among members of a network, the more valuable it becomes to every member. That's where digital identity comes in.
Digital Identity: Better, Faster, Stronger — Together
Making connections between users, their devices, accounts, behaviors and past purchases is what digital identity is all about. Sharing customer identity attributes across a trusted network enables businesses to secure their digital channels against cybercriminal networks.
For example, the LexisNexis Risk Solutions digital identity-based user verification and assessment solutions are informed by roughly 110 million digital events each day.
By leveraging this Internet-scale dataset drawn from trusted sources, LexisNexis Risk Solutions gives businesses an unprecedented level of visibility into the identity of the people with whom they transact in digital channels.
With fuller context for each transaction, they're able to instantly recognize fraudsters wielding stolen usernames, passwords or other personal credentials, without adding friction for legitimate customers.
Making Friends for Fun and Profit
Our digital identity-based solutions have been shown to recognize returning website visitors with 95%*efficacy. Organizations are also able to use digital identity to break down silos between account creation, logins and payments, as well as across different channels such as mobile and desktop. The result is to deliver a faster, more consistent experience across the entire digital customer journey.
That last part is key. According to Forbes, 71% of consumers want a consistent experience across all channels, but only 29% say they ever get it. Finding the balance between friction and customer experience is necessary to optimize revenue.
Achieving the balance is more likely when organizations share trusted data with a trusted network of partners. With this trusted data, organizations gain instant, accurate visibility into the identity of the people they transact with in digital channels — while keeping cybercriminal networks at bay. Isn't that what friends are for?
*Data from the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network®.