This article from Mastercard identifies the battle taking place between increasingly sophisticated criminal activity and the tools designed to detect and prevent that activity. As one expects, AI is central to the article and describes the need for data to refine our fraud detection tools. Mercator identified the data elements critical to this effort in “e-Commerce Authorization Data Patching the Patchwork” and also identified that the needed data is deployed in several silos and that a race is on to gain access to those silos for analysis.
A sad fact not mentioned in this article is that known Zero Day vulnerabilities continue to be exploitable by criminals even after being “patched.” These ongoing vulnerabilities can give criminals the credentials needed to access the account directly which makes detection even harder:
“By 2027, digital commerce transaction values will reach over $18 trillion, while digital transaction fraud will climb 130% between 2020 and 2024. But the impact of these attacks can go beyond that immediate financial loss, potentially damaging reputation, consumer confidence and trust.
It is no longer sufficient to simply secure every transaction — now we must build trust in every interaction and protect the entire cyber environment. This hyperconnectivity has changed the cyber landscape, and also exposed businesses to increased risk via their third-party relationships. You are only as strong as the weakest link in your chain. Supporting the security of the payments network and the entire cyber ecosystem is nothing short of essential for the survival of the global economy.
The AI Edge In The Cyber Battle
In the fight against cybercrime, we have to stay one step ahead of criminals. After all, to breach a business, they only have to break through once — we have to be successful in our defense every time. Today, that means a growing need to predict and prevent fraud and money laundering at multiple junctures: When an account is being created, when a person is logging into their account or when a payment is being initiated.
This has been brought to life over the last 12 months, as we have seen AI in action across our network at Mastercard, which handles 75 billion transactions every year for 2.5 billion cards across 210 countries and territories. At its most basic, AI helps combat cybercrime by identifying and alerting us to deviations from the norm, such as suspicious transactions or account activity. With AI, we can do this far more intelligently and, crucially, continuously in real time.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group
