Page 30 - Perspectives Vol.15 Issue 2

Medium- and Long-Term IT Considerations Following
COVID-19
Idrees Rafiq, Jr., IT Consulting Vice President, Credit Union Resources, Inc.
Fraudulent attacks are increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Malicious actors are using the pandemic to profit off innocent people. Arkose Labs found that 26.5% of all transactions recorded in the first quarter of 2020 were fraud and abuse attempts—a 20% increase over the previous quarter and the highest attack rate ever observed by the security firm’s researchers.1
According to InfoSecurity Magazine, the volume of fraud attacks has ranged from 200%–400%, depending on the industry. Some of these relate directly to the pandemic, with recent reports indicating there have been at least 500 coronavirus-related scams and over 2,000 phishing attempts made by criminals seeking to exploit fears over the pandemic. 2
Securing this new geographically dispersed workforce and protecting every employee and member from
fraud is a primary concern. Many organizations are not prepared and
do not have the latest preventive
tools in place to shield themselves
from financial loss and protect their members from identity theft. In such
an uncertain time, it’s never been more critical for organizations to bolster
their cybersecurity strategies and arm themselves with the necessary tools to keep fraudsters at bay while maintaining usual levels of service. 2
It’s essential for credit unions to verify customer identity before allowing access or transactions to occur over the phone, website, mobile app, or ATM. The traditional PIN and password have proven unreliable safeguards for
account privacy and integrity. Members often forget them, and cybercriminals can obtain these credentials through phishing and social engineering scams. 3
For the identity verification sphere, innovations in biometric sensing are the next level of cyberthreat defense, as hundreds of millions of new accounts are opened in the U.S. and around the world now and throughout 2020. 4
Biometrics offer the highest level of authentication security possible with many advantages to credit unions and members, including lower operational costs and the elimination of complex passwords and PINs. The single most significant reason to consider biometrics is that fraudsters are not able to exploit stolen information obtained from a malicious data breach. By investing in
28 Vol. 15, Issue 2