Identity data is the critical currency for cyber-attacks

Key findings reveal that mobile transactions grew almost 50 % since 2015 to represent 43 % of total network traffic. Cross-border transactions are also on the rise, representing one in five transactions in the Network. Despite their growth, these transactions are considered riskier than domestic transactions and rejected twice as much.

Q3 2016 saw 76 million blocked ecommerce transactions — a 60 % increase over the third quarter 2015. Attacks on logins and payment transactions grew 30 % and 70 %, respectively, over the previous year — a trend that will likely pick up steam into the 2016 holiday season.

ThreatMetrix is predicting a sharp increase in cyber-attacks targeting key retailers for the 2016 holiday shopping season, with a potential 50 million cybercrime attacks over the peak shopping week. Identity data is the critical currency for perpetrating online fraud. Fraudsters’ ability to pose as legitimate customers is one of the greatest challenges faced by global digital businesses, as this can lead to an increase in account takeover and new account creation fraud — both of which are on the rise.

New account creations are rejected at a rate of one in ten transactions, demonstrating a widespread and pernicious use of stolen identity credentials. Stolen identities are often stitched together using a patchwork quilt of data elements harvested from separate breaches, then repackaged and sold at a premium.