05/21/2018

Staying One Step Ahead of Cyber Crime

ABA Banking Journal

With each passing year, the number of fraud victims continues to grow, and data breaches have become routine occurrences. The introduction of EMV technology has shifted the fraud landscape to include more instances of card-not-present and online fraud: from 2015 to 2016, card-not-present fraud increased 40 percent and account takeover fraud was up 31 percent, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.

“It’s a big issue,” says Rheo Brouillard, president and CEO of Savings Institute Bank & Trust in Willimantic, Conn. “We track who’s knocking on our door, and it’s amazing to see the number of people who are poking around looking for an easy target. Fortunately, we haven’t been one, but it’s amazing to see how many people are knocking.”

So it’s no surprise that investment in analytics-driven fraud detection systems are up. “This area used to be a blip in the budget,” says Brian Johnson, CEO of Choice Financial Holdings in Grand Fork, N.D. “Now it’s a significant commitment in resources, both in technology and people.”

Banks are focusing their efforts on both building up both vigilant infrastructure systems and strong internal fraud cultures. Respondents to a recent ABA Community Bankers Council survey of bank CEOs said that their banks are fighting fraud by training staff (95 percent), upgrading network security systems (91 percent), and using anti-malware or anti-virus software (81) percent to better protect their banks against cyberattacks and data breaches.

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