Age of Fraudulent Devices Older Than Expected
Monday, September 20th, 2010The “shelf-life” of devices is a frequently studied topic in web fraud detection. The basic question is: how long does a device remain active and relevant from the perspective of a fraud analyst? Understanding at what age a device typically ceases to be active is an important factor in designing a device recognition system that can be efficient and effective for mitigating fraud.
Since device recognition provides the platform for iovation’s Device Reputation service, we recently conducted a study to examine device shelf-life. The study looked at all transactions seen by ReputationManager over a multi-day period and identified the age of each device associated to fraudulent behavior during that period. The distribution of devices by age—depicted in the chart below—shows that 57 percent of devices involved in fraud during that period were initially identified by iovation more than 90 days prior to the transaction. (more…)
