Elevated attack rate expected to remain during 2023 as Cybercrime Becomes More Sophisticated and Widespread

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions today released the results of its annual Cybercrime Report, an analysis of data from 79.8 billion transactions processed through its LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® throughout 2022. The report, Trust and Collaboration as Foundations to Fight Fraud, shows that the global digital attack rate increased 20% year over year (YOY) compared to 2021, continuing the trend of digital fraud rising as economies re-open following the pandemic.

The LexisNexis® Identity Abuse Index, which records the percentage of attacks per day, shows attack rates fell in the fourth quarter of 2022 although the picture varies by region, with sizeable spikes in APAC, LATAM and North America at the end of the year. 

Despite the effects of economic uncertainty, inflation and the war in Ukraine, digital transactions in 2022 went up by 24% YOY primarily driven by increasing transactions in financial services (29%) and ecommerce (17%).

Organizations are looking to establish consistent digital identity insights across all digital channels and end-customer touch points to mitigate rising fraud levels. They are striving to increase the level of trust with their customers, as well as identifying risk more easily. The report showed that the percentage of transactions classified as trusted in the Digital Identity Network® platform increased by 9% YOY, allowing organizations to provide a smoother customer journey.

"Businesses remain vulnerable to transactional fraud during this time of accelerated digitalization," said Stephen Topliss, vice president of fraud and identity strategy for LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "Despite heightened regulatory scrutiny, technological innovations and higher public awareness, there are persistent challenges in preventing fraud. This trend is likely to endure as consumers continue adopting digital channels. As fraud levels and its sophistication increase, relying on multi-factor authentication alone as a defense is inadequate in today's digital world. Organizations, industries and countries must collaborate and identify the interconnected signals of complex fraud attacks because criminal networks working in a structured way are here to stay. Addressing the latest scams requires targeted machine learning models that can consume the latest digital intelligence insights, behavioral biometrics signals and mule account indicators."

Key findings from The LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report, January to December 2022:

• Mobile Channels Increasingly Popular – Mobile transactions have reached a record high of 77% of all observed transactions in the Digital Identity Network, with the mobile app channel making up 82% of all mobile interactions.
• Attack Rate Continues to Rise – The global attack rate continues to increase, driven by an uptick in the financial services and ecommerce industries at 31% and 29% respectively. The report shows that criminals continue to target the communications, mobile and media industries more than any other sector. However, a noticeable decline of 27% YOY in the overall attack rate suggests criminals are changing focus. 
• Vulnerabilities in Payments – Across all desktop and mobile channels, attack rates on digital payments increased 27% YOY. Alternative payment methods, such as digital wallets, QR code payments and peer-to-peer transfers, continue to gain popularity, particularly in APAC. The shift has contributed to the 32% YOY growth in payment transactions in that region, yet criminals are also fast at exploiting vulnerabilities. The report shows a 50% YOY increase in APAC's payment attack rate.
• Lucrative Avenue for Cybercrime – Automated bot attacks in the ecommerce space have grown 195% globally. Almost half of these attacks focused on the U.S., where ecommerce focused bot attacks increased by 127% YOY. Bot attacks increased 112% in the U.S. gaming and gambling industry, while the sector grows due to legalization in more states.

Download a copy of Trust and Collaboration as Foundations to Fight Fraud: The LexisNexis® Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report 2022.