Speaking at the EMEA Digital Identity Summit 2019 in London Rebekah Moody, fraud and identity market planner at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, reflected on the findings of the new ThreatMetrix EMEA Cybercrime Report.
Moody discussed how the report, based on data from attacks between January-March 2019, revealed EMEA to be one of the most mobile regions in the world, with 71% of transactions originating from a mobile device in EMEA, compared to 55% globally.
That was a key factor in driving a lower overall attack rate in the EMEA region, she added, because mobile transactions are generally “safer than desktop transactions,” with attack rates on mobile five-times lower than desktop.
“However, we have started to see some really interesting shifts and evolution in the way that fraudsters are using mobile,” Moody added, explaining that fraudsters have recently begun adapting to changing consumer behaviors and are now turning their focus to mobile attacks.
“It’s really interesting how fraudsters are using mobile as a facilitator to develop different ways to attack user accounts.”
The industry that is currently most at risk from rising mobile attacks is the media industry, Moody said, explaining that “fraudsters are likely using media as an identity-testing ‘test bed’ because it’s generally an easier target than the e-commerce or financial service industries.”