Faceless fears: no one hears you scream online – it is far too distant and anonymous
Opening shots René Carayol
THERE IS rarely a business bulletin nowadays that doesn’t mention a significant successful fraud. This is of course not the full picture, as most businesses and many consumers do not feel compelled to report their perceived lax controls. It’s now nearly always a sophisticated cyber-attack or the now more prosaic online fraud.
This is not news, but it is certainly becoming far more widespread and consequently, far more concerning. We are all much more aware about opening that badly spelled email, or the one with the dodgy logo, but these phishing emails still work. Many are still encouraged to part with their personal details. Even simple online searches may lead to a website that only exists to harvest credit card details.
The real concern is that while there is a huge focus on the problem of fraud, there is much less of a concerted drive on the solutions for this highly contagious extortion.
The scale of the problem is frightening and growing, so much so that we are struggling to find out more information – many consumers are scared to take part in the necessary online research, as they have become paranoid about phishing. Far too many large businesses are petrified of causing a huge run on their stocks and reputation if they were to “fess up” about the scale and success of cyber-attacks on their data.
There were 459 reported data breach incidents, in which potentially sensitive data about individuals was lost or stolen, in the first three months of this year, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Last month the ICO warned that many more people may be vulnerable to identity theft following a data breach at Carphone Warehouse. Up to 2.4 million customers of the retailer had their personal details – potentially including names, addresses, bank details and dates of birth – stolen by a hacker.
The credit card data of up to 90,000 customers may also have been accessed. The electronics giant Sony and the mobile operator Talk Talk have been targeted by hackers over the past 12 months. The supermarket chain Morrisons also suffered a data breach last year. The number of reported data breaches is up 16 per cent to 1,814 in 2014, says the ICO. There really should not be any element of surprise anymore – walking into a high street store armed with a stolen credit card has become an extremely high-risk strategy. No one hears you scream online – it is far too distant and anonymous. The experienced scam artist may have hundreds of stolen card numbers to work with and will quickly work out which ones are still working or have yet to be reported as stolen.
Some obvious ideas for stopping these scammers include increased criminal and civil sanctions, increased public education of consumers to help them avoid getting conned, the creation of an anti-scamming task force, and using solid payment systems as a secure checkpoint for scammers.
However, because the ubiquity of scam artists prevents many from instant co-operation, it is vital we all become part of the solution. Suspicious behaviour must be reported to the authorities with as much detail as possible. Not all of these crooks will be identified or caught, but reticence only aids and abets the scammers.
It is high time to convert retreat into advance, but nameless and faceless enemies work best when their worst deeds are treated with silence and a fear that your organisation will be singled out as unsafe, unsecure and lax with other people’s valuable and private data. Fraud is everyone’s problem and we are so much stronger together.