Security News
Several U.S. government organizations have issued warnings regarding various types of fraud and phishing schemes that use COVID-19 vaccine-related topics to lure potential victims. The alert from the FBI, HHS-OIG, and CMS reads, could take the form of ads that claim to offer early access to vaccines in exchange for a deposit or fee, requests to pay for the vaccine or enter personal information on a so-called waiting list, or offers to undergo medical testing to obtain the vaccine.
US federal agencies have warned about scammers exploiting the public's interest in the COVID-19 vaccine to harvest personal information and steal money through multiple ongoing and emerging fraud schemes. Potential indicators of such fraudulent activity highlight by the FBI include offers for early access to vaccines conditioned by payment in advance, requests to pay out to receive a vaccine or to get added to a waiting list, and offers to ship doses of the vaccine in exchange of money transfers.
New account fraud based on ID verification declined 23.2% worldwide YOY in 2020, compared to 2019 results, according to Jumio. Selfie fraud rates higher than fraud based on government-issued ID. The report examines fraudulent attempts to open a new account using a manipulated government-issued ID and a corroborating selfie.
Fraud detection methods that don't look at this step are overlooking a gold mine of data. Login: Looking at login is another great way to detect fraud.
Some companies have argued that narrowing the scope of the CFAA would not be damaging to security programs if companies are already contracting security services, including crowdsourced programs like bug bounty. One company received pushback from the information security community when it accused MIT security researchers of acting in "Bad faith" by identifying vulnerabilities in its mobile app.
Researchers are detailing widespread security issues in point-of-sale terminals - specifically, three terminal device families manufactured by vendors Verifone and Ingenico. The issues, which have been disclosed to the vendors and since patched, open several popular PoS terminals used by retailers worldwide to a variety of cyberattacks.
The risk of identity fraud has increased significantly with attacks occurring more frequently since the start of the pandemic, Onfido reveals. Over the past 12 months, the average identity document fraud rate increased by 41% over the previous year as first-time fraudsters appear to be more prevalent, likely due to increased economic hardships during the pandemic.
A report released Tuesday by identity verification firm Onfido looks at the increase in ID fraud since the outbreak of COVID-19 and offers tips on how to protect your organization, your users, and your customers from this type of crime. To compile its "Identity Fraud Report for 2020," Onfido teamed up with criminal police organization Interpol to analyze different fraud techniques.
The agency joins a chorus of security professionals that have concerns about widespread attacks on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. "The detection of a fake influenza vaccine confirms that criminals seize opportunities as soon as they present themselves," the Europol warning read. "Owing to the pandemic, the demand for the influenza vaccine has been higher than usual and there risks being a shortage. Criminals have reacted quickly by producing counterfeit influenza vaccines. The same scenario is also likely to happen when COVID-19 vaccines do become available."
There's a 1% decrease in suspected online retail fraud worldwide during the start of the 2020 holiday shopping season compared to the same period in 2019, a 59% increase from the same period in 2018 and a 14% increase from all of 2020 so far, TransUnion research reveals. The concern is relatively uniform across generations, though Gen X are the most worried about being victimized at 53%. Heading into the holiday shopping season, the study conducted from Oct. 28 to Nov. 5, 2020 found 37% of 9,515 consumers surveyed globally said they had been targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19, a 28% increase from the same survey the week of April 13, 2020.