The Ever-Evolving Battle Against Fraud

The Generative AI Wave: A Double-Edged Sword

As illuminated in our ninth annual Faces of Fraud study, The Evolution of Online Fraud in 2023 and Best Practices to Plug the Gaps, generative AI holds great promise for legitimate applications, but it’s also a new weapon of choice for fraudsters. These malicious actors are quickly harnessing the power of generative AI to identify vulnerabilities, accelerate their attacks and craft convincing lures, including infamous deepfakes.

Generative AI's ability to generate lifelike content has opened new avenues for deception as fraudsters create fake documents, emails and videos nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. This not only makes it easier to execute scams but also means we need stronger, more sophisticated fraud detection and prevention strategies.

Exploiting Complexity: A Fraudster's Playground

Fraudsters thrive on complexity and the modern technological landscape offers ample exploitation opportunities. Today’s scattered IT infrastructures, cloud migration, hybrid workforces and always-on consumer access via mobile apps and online banking and payment platforms create an exponentially expanded attack surface. Threat actors then exploit gaps and vulnerabilities created by this rapid technology adoption, often outpacing an organization’s ability to defend against them.

The 2023 Faces of Fraud survey underscores the concern of financial services security professionals over the breakneck speed at which fraud schemes are evolving. In fact, survey respondents express alarm at their inability to keep pace with these changes. In just four years, the number of respondents who consider the rapid evolution of fraud as their top concern has nearly doubled, from 43% in 2019 to a staggering 83% in 2023.

A Perception Gap?

Also revealed in the survey is a perception gap between how strong a financial organization’s fraud security stance is versus what the organization believes it to be. Despite 97% of respondents claiming to possess an average or above-average ability to detect and address fraud, just 19% feel confident they can see a fraud attack happening in real time. And a mere 11% say they can take immediate action to mitigate such an attack.

These conflicting data points certainly identify a clear disconnect than can be extremely detrimental to a financial institution’s ability to quickly control lateral movement and overall damage from a successful fraudster breach.

The Visibility Challenge: Unmasking Phishing Attacks

Another glaring vulnerability underscored in the report is the lack of visibility that organizations have in identifying the true impact of phishing attacks. Shockingly, 60% of surveyed organizations admit to having limited to no visibility in this area, which means less than half (40%) possess the visibility required to effectively counter phishing attacks.

This revelation highlights a crucial area for improvement because phishing remains a favorite tool in the fraudster's arsenal. These attacks often start with deceptive emails that appear legitimate, luring unsuspecting recipients into clicking on malicious links or downloading harmful attachments. The ability to rapidly identify and neutralize these threats is essential for banking and financial institutions to mitigate financial losses and subsequent brand and reputational collateral damage.

Analyzing the Faces of Fraud report

According to ISMG’s Executive News Editor Tony Morbin, “the data shared in this report will help build your fraud prevention strategy for the coming year, not only in relation to the threats you face and the technology you deploy to prevent them, but also to compare what you should actually aim to achieve.” Watch Tony’s interview with Mike Lopez, SVP, Appgate Fraud Solutions, to get more exclusive commentary on this year’s Faces of Fraud report.

The battle against fraud continues to intensify as technology advances at an unprecedented pace. As financial institutions—and organizations of all types and in all industries—grapple with the challenges, the need for enhanced visibility and proactive anti-fraud measures has never been more urgent. The fight may be never ending, but with the right anti-fraud strategies and solutions, organizations can stand strong against the tide of deception.

For no form-fill access to the 2023 Faces of Fraud report, click here.

Additional fraud protection resources

Report: Digital Threat Protection Global Fraud Analysis
eBook: Fraud Beat Annual Report
Analyst report: 2021 Faces of Fraud
Whitepaper: Global Transaction Fraud Report