Security News

Many of the victimized entities were U.S.-based financial institutions and brokerage firms that suffered direct system compromise from Mustapha and his co-conspirators, who performed unauthorized transactions using other peoples' brokerage accounts. "The defendant was part of a nefarious group that caused millions of dollars in losses to victims by engaging in a litany of cybercrimes, including widespread hacking, fraud, taking control of victims' securities brokerage accounts, and trading in the name of the victims," stated U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.

FBI: $43 billion in losses are due to Business Email Compromise fraud between 2016 and 2021. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released an alert that said there has been a 65% increase in identified global exposed losses from Business Email Compromise fraud, also known as Email Account Compromise.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday announced that it will expand and rebrand its Cyber Unit to fight against cyber-related threats and protect investors in cryptocurrency markets. To that end, the SEC is renaming the Cyber Unit within the Division of Enforcement to Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit and plans to infuse 20 additional positions with the goal of investigating wrongdoing in the crypto markets.

There's just one problem: most fraud prevention companies aren't heeding the signals and drinking the DevOps deployment Kool-Aid. Let's look at how other fraud prevention companies can benefit from this approach-and what it will take for fellow fraud-stoppers to embrace the DevOps deployment model.

Google on Monday disclosed that it's taking legal action against a nefarious actor who has been spotted operating fraudulent websites to defraud unsuspecting people into buying non-existent puppies. "The actor used a network of fraudulent websites that claimed to sell basset hound puppies - with alluring photos and fake customer testimonials - in order to take advantage of people during the pandemic," Google's CyberCrime Investigation Group manager Albert Shin and senior counsel Mike Trinh said.

Results from an Association for Financial Professionals survey are encouraging, as 71% of organizations report having been victims of payments fraud activity in 2021, lower than the 81% reported in 2019 and the lowest percentage recorded since 2014. Check fraud activity is unchanged from the prior year at 66%, while the share of respondents reporting payments fraud via ACH debits increased four percentage points from last year to 37%. Checks and ACH debits are the most susceptible to payments fraud, while wire fraud activity continued its steady decline from 48% in 2017 to 32% in 2021.

Reported cases of consumer fraud more than tripled in the years 2020-2021 from prior years, finds a new report by Accenture, presenting a growing challenge for public safety agencies to find new strategies to counter the trend. The report compiled data from eight developed nations on consumer fraud, defined as any fraud directly targeting citizens and excluding fraud targeting government agencies and companies.

A report from the Internal Audit Foundation, The Institute of Internal Auditors and Kroll, is based on a recent global survey and focus groups with internal auditors, discussing how the role of internal audit in fraud risk management has changed since the start of the pandemic. By comparing the new data to the original pre-pandemic results, the organizations were able to see if internal audit's ability to prevent, detect and investigate fraud had changed, and identify lessons that can be learned and applied to fraud risk management today.

A Javelin study reveals that traditional identity fraud losses totaled $52 billion and affected 42 million U.S. adults. Among the trends observed were huge increases to account takeover fraud and new account fraud in which fraud operators deployed multiple tactics to steal victims' personal information to drain them of billions of dollars.

A study shows that traditional identity fraud losses, caused by criminals illegally using victims' information to steal money, exploded in 2021 to $24 billion - an alarming 79% increase over 2020. Further, the number of adults in the United States impacted by traditional identity fraud grew more than 50%, reaching more than 15 million victims, a Javelin identity fraud study reveals.