JERICHO, NY – January 10, 2018 – Intellicheck (NYSE AMERICAN: IDN) Interim CEO Bill White believes the real impact of the tidal wave of data breaches has yet to be fully recognized. He cautions that financial institutions, retailers and businesses in general are at a crossroads because of the unprecedented compromise of consumer information from the more than 1,200 data breaches that occurred in 2017 and what is yet to come in 2018.
“Data breaches involving critical personal identifiers that include social security numbers and dates of birth have created a new dimension in identity theft that goes far beyond the threats that everyone from financial institutions to retailers have been faced with to date. Fraudsters have been provided with a treasure of information that has an infinite shelf life compared to typical stolen credit card data,” White said.
“The first step in tackling the problem is to recognize the missing link. The missing piece of authentication needed for a fraudulent transaction to occur is typically a picture ID that is most easily obtained by means of a fake driver license. Consumers and retailers alike need these ID documents to be authenticated now more than ever to ensure that a consumers’ personal data is utilized only by them,” White explained.
White said there is a way to stop fraudsters. “With all that personal information in hand, the one way to stop a fraudulent transaction is to validate the customer’s identity by quickly and accurately authenticating a verifiable, government issued ID like a driver license.”
White noted that financial institutions as well as businesses must move quickly to adopt identification authentication technology solutions that thwart account-centric attacks, while engaging customers.
“Sophisticated, readily available fake IDs will easily defeat old school methods like a visual inspection, but they won’t stand up to the scrutiny of state-of-the-art authentication technology solutions that provide immediate, accurate results. Whether you consider online, mobile or point of sale transactions, fraudsters will continue to proliferate fraudulent activity without the right technology solution. The focus has to be on the adoption of real-time response technology solutions to defeat fraudsters, while providing a frictionless customer and adopter experience,” White concluded.
The Equifax breach of 2017 resulted in the compromise of personal data for more than 143 million consumers. The 15% growth in data breaches in 2017 comes on the heels of a 40% spike in data breaches in 2016. Incidents of data breaches are expected to continue to increase in 2018. According to the Javelin consulting firm, the total loss in fraudulent e-commerce transactions alone will jump to nearly $19 billion in 2018.