At least that is what the high-altitude behavioral biometrics telemetry from one identity protection network is showing
In analyzing a subset of 92bn transactions in its “digital identity network” between Jan and Dec 2023 (excluding non-transaction-based events such as feedback data and test transactions), as well as transactions from organizations considered “outliers” (based on extremely high or zero recorded reject rates to calculate overall transaction volumes globally and by region) to detect cyber threat trends, one data analytics firm has published some findings.
First, the data showed a 19% year-over-year (YoY) increase in the rate of global human-initiated attacks, particularly in e-commerce and North American clients. Spikes were found at both the beginning and the end of the data collected for analysis. Also, the North America attack rate had risen to equal and then surpass that of clients from Latin America throughout the period of data analysis.
Second, the volume of human-initiated e-commerce attacks had surged 80% YoY, resulting in an attack rate of 2.8% (up by 59% YoY). A key component of this growth in attacks comprised account takeover of e-commerce accounts, with the attack rate at login reaching 3.3% (an increase of 119% YoY).
Other findings
The third finding was that third-party account takeover fraud was the leading type of fraud reported by clients in 2023, contributing 29% of fraud classifications reported, linked to the strong attack rate growth on account logins in 2023 (up 18% YoY). Also:
- Human-initiated attacks had surged by 40% in volume to 1.3bn, while attacks initiated by bots had maintained a steady 2% YoY growth to reach 3.6bn in the data analyzed. The report authors attributed the growth rate control to the use of improved bot detection tools such as “proxy piercing technology”.
- Parts of South-east Asia (SEA), such as border areas in Cambodia, Myanmar and remote parts of Thailand, were identified from the data as sources of illicit activities by scam operations centers.
According to Stephen Topliss, Vice President of Fraud and Identity, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the firm releasing its internal data analytics findings: “Cybercriminals continue to increase the scale and complexity of their illegal operations, with dedicated scam centers becoming a permanent fixture to mount digital attacks on consumers worldwide. Organizations cannot afford to be complacent about the growing sophistication of bots, which can display more human-like behavior to evade traditional prevention solutions. By focusing on identifying advanced bots in real time, businesses can mitigate their ability to create fraudulent accounts or test stolen login credentials for future account takeover attacks.”
