UNITED KINGDOM Increase in Fraud YoY

UK Struck with Record High Fraud Levels

The increase of fraud in the UK stems from two key areas. The first is data breaches. The fraud threat from data breaches has escalated rapidly, causing an unprecedented increase in gross attacks within the CNP fraud space. These data compromises are incredibly well publicised: more significant regulatory fines than ever are being levied against breached organizations. These fines run into the hundreds of millions and mark a new era of threat and regulatory pressure for those deemed not to have effective cyber-crime practices.

According to UK Finance, the second driver pushing fraud figures higher is changes in reporting practices, meaning that significantly more transactions previously reported as ‘non-fraud’ now fall into the fraudulent category. This trend is likely to be seen across the globe as more reporting schemes begin to deploy these new reporting processes.

However, this data doesn’t tell the full story of how the threat is evolving. FICO works closely with UK Finance, the industry body responsible for fraud reporting and industry anti-fraud initiatives, which notes that the UK has actually prevented more fraud than ever before, and that it’s being caught earlier in the attack cycle.

Although the UK is a leader in fraud prevention, with the highest prevention rates seen across this study, the sheer scale of attack continues to leave the market as a loss outlier. The key to turning this tide lies in practices around data compromise – utilising global networks of loss data and confirmed fraud in order to catch data compromise significantly earlier. This will reduce customer losses and operational pressures that often result from these attacks. FICO^® Card Compromise Manager will be an important tool in doing so: it offers real-time visibility into emerging and confirmed threats, and uses advanced analytics to indicate the likelihood of ‘bust out’, thus providing financial institutions a new opportunity to identify, react and prevent compromise prior to the losses escalating out of control. Card Compromise Manager utilises the data held in the Falcon Intelligence Network – facilitating global threat intelligence sharing and collaboration between more than 9,000 financial institutions.