ATLANTA, May 17, 2023/PRNewswire/– The annual Cybercrime Report from LexisNexis® Risk Solutions reveals that the global digital attack rate in 2022 increased by 20% year-over-year compared to 2021. This upward trend in digital fraud remains consistent as economies open after the pandemic. The report is titled, “Trust and Collaboration as Foundations to Fight Fraud,” and analyzed data from 79.8 billion transactions processed through the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® in 2022.
The LexisNexis® Identity Abuse Index shows that the attack rates fell in the fourth quarter of 2022. However, there were spikes in attack rates in North America, APAC, and LATAM by year-end. Even though economic uncertainty, inflation, and the war in Ukraine impacted global business, digital transactions saw a rise of 24% YoY, primarily driven by increasing transactions in financial services (29%) and ecommerce (17%).
Organizations are seeking consistent digital identity insights across all digital channels and end-customer touchpoints to mitigate rising fraud levels. Increasing trust with customers is crucial for companies to identify risk with ease. The report indicates that the percentage of transactions classified as trusted in the Digital Identity Network platform increased by 9% YoY, enabling organizations to provide a smoother customer journey.
Stephen Topliss, VP of fraud and identity strategy for LexisNexis Risk Solutions, stated, “Businesses remain vulnerable to transactional fraud during this time of accelerated digitalization. Despite heightened regulatory scrutiny, technological innovations, and higher public awareness, there are persistent challenges in preventing fraud. This trend is likely to endure as consumers continue adopting digital channels.”
As fraud levels and its sophistication increase, relying on multi-factor authentication alone as a defense is inadequate in today’s digital world. Organizations, industries, and countries must collaborate and identify the interconnected signals of complex fraud attacks. Criminal networks working in a structured way are here to stay. Addressing the latest scams requires targeted machine learning models that can consume the latest digital intelligence insights, behavioral biometrics signals, and mule account indicators.
The report highlighted the following key findings:
– Mobile Channels Increasingly Popular – Mobile transactions reached a record high of 77% of all observed transactions in the Digital Identity Network, with the mobile app channel making up 82% of all mobile interactions.
– Attack Rate Continues to Rise – The global attack rate continued to increase, driven by an uptick in the financial services and ecommerce industries at 31% and 29%, respectively. The report notes that criminals continue to target the communications, mobile, and media industries more than any other sector. However, a noticeable decline of 27% YoY in the overall attack rate suggests criminals are changing focus.
– Vulnerabilities in Payments – Attack rates on digital payments across all desktop and mobile channels rose 27% YoY. Alternative payment methods, such as digital wallets, QR code payments, and peer-to-peer transfers, continue to gain popularity, primarily in APAC. The shift has contributed to the growth of 32% YoY in payment transactions in that region.
– Lucrative Avenue for Cybercrime – Automated bot attacks in the ecommerce space grew globally by 195%, with almost half of these attacks focused on the U.S. Ecommerce-focused bot attacks in the U.S. increased by 127% YoY. Bot attacks rose 112% in the U.S. gaming and gambling industry, while the sector grows due to legalization in more states.
The LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report is based on cybercrime attacks detected by the Digital Identity Network platform. The platform processed 92 billion transactions in 2022, including common attack types such as new account creation, account login, and payment fraud. It analyzes transactions for legitimacy based on device identification, geolocation, history, and behavioral analytics in near real-time, providing insight into global digital identities. The report covers “high-risk” transactions scored by global customers. The Digital Identity Network does not include transaction data from all countries worldwide.
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions comprises seven brands that span multiple industries and sectors. The company uses data, sophisticated analytics platforms, and technology solutions to provide insights to governments and businesses worldwide. The firm is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, the company has offices worldwide. For more information, please visit their website: www.risk.lexisnexis.com and www.relx.com.