Human-initiated attacks rose by 20 per cent last year compared to 2021 as economies re-opened, according to a LexisNexis Risk Solutions report entitled Trust and Collaboration as Foundation to Fight Fraud: Keeping Good Customers Safe.
In Canada, 80 per cent of transactions occur via a mobile channel, says the report. That means the country also experienced an especially high mobile browser attack rate of 5.1 per cent, compared with the global mobile browser attack rate of 2.7 per cent.
The highest attack rates across Canadian financial services occurred at new account openings (5.2 per cent) and payments (5.8 per cent), says the report, whereas the Canadian e-commerce industry experienced a whopping 183 per cent increase in bot attacks.
The report says that financial institutions received a range of attacks, from fraudulent password resets to credit card testing.
Globally, financial services transactions increased by 29 per cent between January and December 2022. In the same period in North America, the risk of human-initiated attacks went up by 31 per cent for the financial industry, which also saw a 23 per cent rise in automated bot attacks.
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But there is hope, says the study, as machine learning optimized scam detection models show high detection rates, and real-time intelligence-sharing collaborations prevent replicated attacks from organized fraud rings.
“The growth in bot volume in Canada was substantial, and certain industries, such as financial services, experienced some of the highest attack rates globally,” said Alanna Shuh, director, fraud and identity strategy for Canada, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “It's clear that organizations utilizing a global intelligence consortium and layering solutions at each consumer touchpoint are better equipped to stop fraud in its tracks, especially given the increasing size and complexity of global fraud networks.”
