Mobile devices linked to fraud

The trend began more than a year ago when, thanks to the boom worldwide in the popularity of mobile devices, they became linked to fraud as they became the target of phishing attacks.

As we enter 2017, that trend shows no sign of abating as our reliance on mobile devices grows. Mobile transactions are growing rapidly, but fraud is outpacing it as cybercriminals are moving to less protected, “soft” channels. In 2015, US experts noticed that 45 per cent of all transactions originated from the mobile channel while 61 per cent of fraud attempts were made from a mobile device.

As organisations continue to roll out more mobile services to customers and employees begin to depend on them in order to do business on their behalf, the mobile channel has become rife with cybercrime. Yet smartphones based processes are often poorly protected, and many people use them with less security savvy than they would a desktop computer.

A number of experts say the shift from spam attacks going to PCs to phishing on mobiles is because smartphone technology is moving so fast with more than 1.5 billion phones sold globally in 2015. And mobile devices are becoming the preferred platform for online banking and accessing business applications to name a few. Experts say the rise in fraud attempts originating from the mobile channel, increased by 173 per cent between 2013 and 2015.

The shift has been a challenge; it’s not easy to prevent cyber-attacks from happening on your employees’ BYOD devices which would all have app downloads, for example? As you would expect, there has been a growth in exploring all sorts of security options from biometric technology to more vigilant forms of authentication. Smartphones are vulnerable to the same virus, spyware and phishing threats as your home computer. Downloaded apps are the easiest way for hackers to compromise your phone’s security and it’s a good idea to educate your employees to only download from safe sources.

Fraud prevention approaches now require solutions which can extend to mobile and cloud environments. Even if attacks can’t be stopped completely, it is possible to change how we detect and respond to an attack to reduce the potential for loss or damage.

Having the right technology and an expert team who can explain the various security options available is half the battle.

Call us to discuss ways to secure your customer payment channels, online fraud decisioning tools, unencrypted data scanning and secure cloud based storage solutions.

To find out how IP Solutions can provide the solutions and services you need to protect your data and minimise your fraud exposure, speak with one of our experts today.