Experts urge vigilance against growing digital fraud risks

The rise in digitalisation has brought about an increase in fraudulent activity, prompting industry experts to call for heightened awareness and robust solutions.

Patrick Harding, Chief Architect at Ping Identity, highlighted the growing threat of fraud in an increasingly digital world. "As our world becomes increasingly digital, fraud continues to grow at an alarming rate - putting businesses and individuals at risk of losing hard-earned dollars and valuable data," he stated.

Harding noted that advances in artificial intelligence have made it easier for cybercriminals to engage in activities such as identity creation, phishing, and impersonation. He further emphasised the need for security solutions that incorporate prevention, detection, and real-time threat response. "By focusing on identity risks and remaining vigilant, we can spot fraud earlier and stop cyber criminals before the damage has already been done," he added.

Peter Philipp, General Manager for ANZ at Neo4j, focused on the use of modern technologies to combat money laundering. He cited knowledge graph technology, underpinned by a graph database, as particularly effective for anti-money laundering efforts due to its ability to uncover complex patterns and relationships among data. "Graph databases place as much emphasis on the relationships between data points as the data itself," Philipp explained, "meaning that entities such as 'person,' 'account,' 'company,' and 'address,' along with their connections to one another, like 'registered at' or 'transacted with,' then reveal complex connections." He argued that real-time data analysis is crucial in staying ahead of criminal networks, stating, "Armed with graph database software and AI, the banking and finance sector can take on the money launderers and win."

Carla Roncato, Vice President of Identity at WatchGuard Technologies, turned attention to the threat of insider risks, which she noted can be both intentional and unintentional. "Insider risks can be intentional, such as data theft or sabotage by disgruntled employees, or unintentional, accidental data leaks or policy violations," Roncato explained.

She highlighted the potential for employees and contractors with insider access to bypass security controls, exploit financial systems, and leak customer data. Roncato proposed several measures for managing these risks, including clear company policies, least-privilege access controls, and behavioural analytics monitoring.

"Deploying an incident response plan with specific steps to take when an insider threat is detected along with the ability to conduct forensic investigations to understand the scope and impact of an incident," she advised. Roncato also stressed the importance of culture and training in promoting transparency and trust within organisations.

The views reflect the complex and multifaceted nature of fraud in the digital age and emphasise the necessity for comprehensive strategies to mitigate the associated risks.