Cyber attacks have doubled, but more data breaches being thwarted

There has been a 100 percent increase in the volume of cyber attacks over the last two years, according to a report from ThreatMetrix, which provides user identity intelligence services. The good news, the study said, is that record numbers of these attacks were thwarted by organizations that have deployed strategies to protect against large-scale data breaches.

The report is based on analysis of real world cyber crime attacks—as seen across the ThreatMetrix global network, which analyzes 100 million transactions a day.

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Cyber criminals are launching more ambitious attacks that produce long-term profits, leveraging sets of stolen identity data. This is demonstrated by a highly elevated attack rate on account creations—the most vulnerable activity, the report said. More than one in nine of all new accounts opened in 2017 were fraudulent.

Among the report highlights:

  • The volume of mobile transactions grew by nearly 83 percent as consumers embrace multi-device behavior, with mobile overtaking desktop-based transactions for the first time in 2017.
  • Account takeover attacks increased 170 percent, now taking place once every 10 seconds.
  • 83 million fraudulent new accounts were attempted between 2015 and 2017.
  • Fraudulent payments increased 100 percent over the last two years.
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Cyber attacks Data breaches Cyber security Data security
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