Tips & Tactics for Staying Ahead of Online Fraudsters

Five simple strategies for protecting your customers and brand

Organizations with vested interest in the success of the online channel continue to fight to maintain and restore customer confidence in online services. Identity theft and online fraud are growing problems for both customers and corporate brands. The damages can be devastating. The bottom line is that criminals don't go away. They move from organization to organization, method to method. Cybercrime is a professional industry with high-stake rewards. With more than 20 years in the banking and high-technology industries, TowerGroup's George Tubin has gained a wealth of knowledge focused on consumer online banking, online fraud and identity theft prevention, information security strategy, and customer authentication. He offers the following tips to successfully fight the fraudsters and win.

Protect & defend ... your consumers

Consumers cannot defend themselves. Unfortunately, the average user doesn't posses the technical know-how to safeguard their desktops from online attacks. They use systems that are not typically secure or up-to-date. Their actions while Web surfing and using e-mail can often lead to an open door for fraudsters. You can educate your customers about potential types of attacks and encourage them to "harden" their PCs. Ultimately, however, they expect you to protect them — and it's your reputation that's on the line.

Just do it

Don't wait for regulators to impose or enforce compliance. Take a proactive approach to keeping digital identities and sensitive information safe online. Be quick off the mark and offer a better and more secure solution than your peers. If you're slow to respond, your organization may very well be targeted by cybercriminals.

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Lock the front door, the back door and the windows

Cybercriminals will go to great lengths to fool innocent consumers in an attempt to obtain sensitive information. Your job is to stop them at all entry points. Your best defense is a layered security approach, which helps to secure the most common digital identities and information protection pain points, including in-session monitoring, back-end fraud detection, out-of-band authentication and fraud alerts. It provides a level of synergy, interoperability and cost-efficiency unmatched by a collection of third-party products.

One size does not fit all

All authentication solutions are not equal. It's important to pick a solution that matches the level of risk for each type of user, transaction, application and environment. Some users may need stronger authentication or secondary authentication. It's also important to consider customer impact versus authentication strength. Basic passwords, for example, offer high/easy usability but weak security. Ultimately, you want a solution that matches high/easy usability and high security for all of your users — regardless of the transaction or activity.

Pick a risk-based authentication solution

These solutions are the most flexible and require less customer involvement. They mostly work "behind the scenes" to assess a level of risk to a transaction and then decide whether or not further authentication is required. Ultimately, a risk-based authentication model helps detect fraud in real time, defends against cybercriminals by using multiple authentication methods when they are needed, and adapts as your organization's needs change.

Also, download our newest webcasts, "Fighting the Fraudsters: Beating Malware and Phishing Threats" and "Blueprint for Protecting Consumers from Online Fraud — Real-World Lessons in Risk-Based Authentication."