84 Percent Of Businesses Could Reduce Fraud Risk If Certain About Customers’ Identity

New research findings from Experian’s Global Fraud and Identity Report (link to press release)  tracks the global growth in fraud. Among the report’s key findings:

• 84 percent of businesses surveyed believe they could reduce fraud risk if they were certain about their customers’ identity;
• 72 percent of businesses cite fraud as a growing concern;
• one in four consumers has abandoned a transaction because too much data was required to set up a new account;
• 35 percent of consumers would increase online transactions if they encountered fewer security hurdles;
• just 40 percent of businesses surveyed reported being “very confident” in their fraud detection abilities; and
• 52 percent of businesses are still using passwords for fraud detection and protection.

IT security experts commented below.

Robert Capps, Vice President at NuData Security:

“The ability for organisations to limit fraudulent activity is at present marred by their inability to accurately identify customers. In this age of data breaches, password reuse, and password guessing technology, a simple username and password method of authentication is simply not enough – the flurry of constant data breaches are evidence of this.

The use of two-factor authentication, or even better, passive biometrics, which is capable of identifying users based on passive biological factors impossible to mimic, could help to bridge the identification gap for companies, and put 84% of fraudsters out of business. Behavioural and passive biometrics, in a layered approach, help to identify the identity of the real consumer without applying additional friction or inconveniencing the transaction. Simply analysing how a consumer holds or enters keystrokes on their device, or hundreds of other behavioural data points, can verify that there is a human behind the transaction and that it is the right human. At the end of the day, trusting the online environment is what matters.”