Strengthening security to counter account takeover fraud

It’s not new, but it’s growing in leaps and bounds. Account takeover fraud – which occurs when a criminal gains unauthorized access to an account via identity theft – is expanding geometrically, according to an analysis by a major Canadian cybersecurity company.

Even back in November 2015, British Columbia-based NuData Security was reporting that between May-June 2015, nearly half a billion “aged” accounts were flagged with potential fraud, up 28 percent from the first quarter of 2015. “This highlights the growing value fraudsters are seeing in using aged accounts in an effort to circumvent traditional fraud detection systems that place a level of trust in an aged authenticated account,” wrote Ryan Wilk, the company’s Vice President for Customer Success, in The Social Media Monthly.

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