Fraud Awareness Week: How to Effectively Protect Your Data and Combat Fraudsters

International Fraud Awareness Week (November 17-23) is a critical time to consider the significant risks that fraud poses to individuals and organizations. Thanks to AI, fraud attempts and successful attacks are alarmingly common and more advanced, with many businesses experiencing substantial financial losses directly resulting from these crimes.

Understanding the fraud landscape is the first step in minimizing its impact. Equally important is to recognize that anti-fraud and data security solutions, such as the ones Thales offers, do work and can help your organization combat fraudsters effectively.

The Expanding Fraud Landscape

Fraud is as big a problem as ever – if not worse. But that likely doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

According to the 2024 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report, 80% of organizations were victims of payment fraud attacks or attempts, a 15-percentage point increase from the previous year. As stated in the Nasdaq 2024 financial crime report, projected losses from fraud schemes reached $485.6 billion globally in 2023. Finally, in the EU, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) reported that over €1.2 billion was affected by fraud and irregularities.

Anti-Fraud Protections Do Work!

However, not everything is doom and gloom. Investing in proper anti-fraud protection can have some essential impact. For example, the US Department of the Treasury reports that their enhanced fraud detection processes prevented and recovered over $4 billion in fraud and improper payments in fiscal year 2024, up from $652.7 million in FY23. The achievements include:

• $500 million prevented through expanded risk-based screening
• $2.5 billion prevented by identifying and prioritizing high-risk transactions
• $180 million prevented through improved payment processing schedules

Every day, state and federal agencies in the US and the EU win crucial battles in the war against fraud and financial crime. The same can become a reality for private businesses. All they need to do is invest in solutions that provide a strong value proposition, such as the ones offered from Thales.

Thales Solutions for Fraud Prevention in Financial Services

Thales offers a comprehensive suite of solutions to help financial institutions combat fraud and secure their operations:

Encryption and Data Security

The Thales CipherTrust Data Security Platform provides robust encryption and key management capabilities, essential for protecting sensitive financial data:

• Secures intellectual property and helps comply with privacy and regulatory mandates.
• Offers database encryption to protect against abuse by privileged users.
• Enables secure data analytics while mitigating risks of exposure and compromise.

Transaction and Payment Security

At the heart of the Thales fraud prevention strategy is the payShield 10K, a state-of-the-art payment Hardware Security Module (HSM):

• Delivers critical payment security functionality for transaction processing, sensitive data protection, and payment credential issuing.
• Supports both face-to-face and digital remote payments, ensuring trust in communications between payment participants.
• Addresses the latest security requirements mandated by EMVCo, PCI SSC, GlobalPlatform, and various global payment brands.

Secure Payment Solutions

The Thales payment security solutions are used in an estimated 80% of payment card transactions worldwide:

• Protect the confidentiality and integrity of transactions from initial payment card issuance to transaction processing.
• Support advanced technologies such as host card emulation, secure element provisioning, and mobile point of sale (POS) security.
• Secure the digital transformation of the payments industry across various applications and environments.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

The 2024 Thales Data Threat Report (DTR) Financial Services Edition revealed that only 59% of financial services organizations cite achieving security consistency across workforce and non-workforce identities. When security policies are not uniformly applied, attackers can exploit these inconsistencies to gain access to sensitive data, leading to potential fraud.

The Thales IAM solutions complement their encryption and payment security offerings:

• Enhance overall security posture by ensuring only authorized users access sensitive financial systems.
• Implement multi-factor authentication and single sign-on to strengthen access controls.

API Protection

API protection is also crucial for reducing the risk of fraud. APIs that support customer loyalty and rewards programs are especially vulnerable to attacks. These popular programs, such as airline miles and retail points, have essentially transformed companies into “accidental banks” by storing customer data that holds real monetary value. When attackers exploit vulnerabilities in these APIs, they can gain access to loyalty accounts, enabling them to steal or misuse this digital currency.

Imperva API protection solutions safeguard the APIs that power mobile applications and peer-to-peer payment systems, help discover, inventory, assess, and fix broken or vulnerable APIs, protect against automated attacks and business logic abuse targeting APIs, and ensure compliance with industry guidelines and regulations related to API security.

You Can Protect Your Organization from Fraud

By implementing these Thales solutions, financial services organizations can significantly enhance their fraud prevention capabilities, protect sensitive data, secure payment transactions, and maintain regulatory compliance. The combination of robust encryption, secure payment processing, and advanced HSM technology provides a comprehensive defense against evolving fraud threats in the financial sector.

Fraud is a huge problem that isn’t going anywhere any time soon. You must act now to protect your organization from financial losses and legal repercussions.

Want to know more about how Thales’ suite of security solutions can protect your organization from fraud? Contact a specialist today.