You’ve Got to Be Careful to Avoid Online Payment Fraud

Cyberthreats are difficult enough when they aren’t trying to steal your hard-earned capital, and with digital payments making up about 41.8% of all payments made worldwide, you bet there are plenty of opportunities for fraud to occur. Let’s take a look at how you can ensure that your payment cards are protected.

Digital Payments are Twice as Common as Card Payments

Digital wallets are used at about double the rate of card payments, which is a trend that you might not have expected. Many users are accepting digital wallets and their conveniences, but the system has its flaws that can be exploited by hackers.

Data compromises involving digital payments have grown substantially, including access to sensitive information like victims’ full names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and other similar information, like home addresses, medical histories, and even driver’s licenses.

The Usual Cybercrime Threats Are Growing Ever More Common

With a couple exceptions, most cyberattacks and vulnerabilities have either remained constant or are decreasing with time. The big exceptions to this rule are phishing attacks, ransomware, and malware. Between the years of 2019 and 2021, these three saw the largest increase in attacks.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, most but not all attack vectors have decreased or remained the same during this period of time.

The most concerning statistic relates to your customers, which indicates that the most commonly stolen information in 2021 included someone’s full name (1,803 breaches), their full Social Security number (1,136 breaches), and their date of birth (688 breaches). With that kind of personally identifiable information, hackers can cause all kinds of problems.

Protect Your Data Today

You shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not your personal information is being exploited due to a security breach, and you can eliminate a lot of your customers’ stress about it too by properly protecting your infrastructure. To learn more, reach out to us at (978) 482-2020.