As Internet traffic grows exponentially, the ability to identify all online transactions is an ongoing challenge for any organization. This challenge is even more significant for businesses whose sales revenues rely on online payments. For them, the ability to analyze and decipher the difference between a valid transaction and a risky one is critical to their business success.

As we inch closer to the holiday season, a pair of recent articles highlight the increasing volume of online transactions that are just around the corner for online merchants. If there is a security takeaway from these trends, it’s that IT fraud teams better be prepared for significant increases in online transactions over the next few weeks. (more…)

As Internet advancements change the competitive landscapes of industries across the globe, fraud prevention mechanisms are essential to filter online payments and flag or stop suspicious transactions.

According to the article, “Securing Internet Payments,” 70% of all fraudulent credit card transactions originate from card-not-present (CNP) transactions. This has a substantial impact on the public’s confidence using their credit card for online transactions. Lacking the capability to prevent unauthorized transactions and associated fraud and abuse ultimately trickles down to Internet-based businesses’ bottom line revenues and profits. (more…)

With today’s cyber criminals more financially motivated, organizations need ways to better protect sensitive areas of their websites that process electronic payments. To handle the volumes and high availability requirements of demanding financial institutions, iovation has partnered with Affirmative Technologies, which provides a suite of Automated Clearing House (ACH) services and other risk management and verification solutions to its financial clients.

Through this partnership, Affirmative Technologies will offer customers iovation’s ReputationManager 360, which combines customizable business rules, risk profiles, and the shared experiences of more than 2,000 fraud analysts from leading brands worldwide, as a strategic component of its risk platform. By combining Affirmative Technologies expertise in electronic payments with our risk assessment and global device reputation solution, companies get an extra layer of security to authenticate users before they enter their secure websites. (more…)

It’s that time of year again, when fraud managers everywhere are working diligently to ensure their websites and online stores are protected from higher volumes of cybercrime. Unfortunately, the busy holiday shopping season has most fraud managers on high alert to make sure they’re keeping up with new and evolving fraud schemes that can put a serious damper on their end-of-the-year sales.

With cybercrime more prevalent during the holiday rush, this got me thinking about what gifts would be at the top of fraud manager’s wish lists, and how iovation can help fulfill those holiday wishes. Here is my list of the top gifts fraud managers would like to see this holiday season:

1. Secure online and mobile transactions: Online and mobile payments are the lifeblood of many companies today. Having the right tools to secure both online and mobile transactions is critical to mitigating fraud risks. In addition to identifying computers accessing their online stores, iovation helps companies assess risk on all transactions from iPads, tablets, and mobile devices including iPhones, Android, Blackberries, and many other brands.

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As more and more online retailers go global, they face a number of challenges around securing customer data and the online payment process. In the article, “Security expert talks alternative payments, fraud protection and global expansion,” Souheil Badran of First Data shares his insights on how companies can protect their sensitive information from fraud.

In a nutshell, merchants must take a proactive approach by adopting tailored fraud and risk management solutions to protect their businesses. As fraudsters become more sophisticated, Badran said protecting an online business environment from fraudulent orders and safeguarding cardholder data is critical to overall business revenues and brand reputation. (more…)

iovation is announcing a new partnership with Failsafe Payments, a leading merchant service provider that connects online merchants with worldwide banks, payment processors, shopping carts, and e-commerce payment alternatives.

I recently sat down with Failsafe’s chief operating officer, Patrick Sallnert, to discuss some of the top online payment challenges facing today’s merchants, its integrated e-commerce platform, Certo Payment Gateway, and how our partnership will help provide safe and secure online payment services for merchant customers. (more…)

While online payments is the fastest growing segment of retail and payments, it also continues to be one of the riskiest. As cyber criminals step up their game and adapt new techniques to defraud online and card-not-present (CNP) merchants, payment providers and online retailers must take steps to protect their networks from organized fraud rings. (more…)

Last week, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its 2009 Annual Report on Internet fraud activity, and the results were staggering. According to the report, in 2009 U.S. citizens lost nearly $560 million to online scams. That number more than doubled the $265M in online fraud losses reported in 2008. The IC3, which tracks worldwide complaints of Internet fraud through its Web site, also said the total number of complaints in 2009 jumped 22% compared to 2008.

In the article, “Internet fraud’s U.S. price tag put at $550 million,” Donald Brackman, director of the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), said the growing figures can be largely attributed to increasingly sophisticated online schemes and cyber criminals’ ability to hide their true identities online. (more…)