Holiday Shoppers Targeted by Credit Card Thieves Online and Off: Security Experts Offer Tips, Urge Vigilance
TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2013 /CNW/ – With an estimated sales growth of 14% over last Christmas, retailers and ecommerce vendors are expecting a revenue boost this holiday season. But according to experts the diversity of brazen attacks has intensified despite a marked increase in shopper awareness of card fraud, hacking breaches and identity theft scams.
“Without counting this week’s massive theft of 40 million credit and debit card records from the discount retail chain Target, the RCMP indicates that fraud complaints are up over last year and each one is invariably in the thousands of dollars” said Claudiu Popa, CEO of Toronto-based Informatica Security. “Each year we see an increase in the volume of cyberfraud and identity theft. This year is different: we are warning the public of an increase in all types of financial crime, from e-commerce breaches to telephone, insurance, investment and ATM fraud.”
The company urges members of the media to be aware of 3 key facts:
- expect a marked increase in reported identity theft cases due primarily to last year’s large security breaches, which saw tens of millions of financial records exposed in high profile incidents.
- positively, the public’s awareness of both cybercrime and traditional fraud is up 115% over 2008 levels.
- the diversity of incidents can be overwhelming to identify and report, but should be accurately covered to avoid confusing, alarming or de-sensitizing the audience.
“Criminals who don’t use stolen data within the first couple of days are either selling those records in bulk or waiting for the holiday rush to carry out their nefarious activities. Expect it, identify it, report it!” added Popa.
About Informatica Corporation:
Informatica Security is Canada’s leading security assurance company, providing privacy analysis, threat risk assessments and security compliance audits to industry sectors as diverse as healthcare, finance, IT and education. The company’s respected Verify™ trustmark is an exclusive indicator of an organization’s adherence to applicable legislation, standards compliance and industry best practices. Trustmark holders may also qualify for preferred insurance rates as Verify™ constitutes a valuable competitive differentiator in today’s climate of risk and uncertainty.
SOURCE: Informatica Security Corporation
For further information:
Claudiu Popa, CEO, Informatica Corporation
email: [email protected]
www.SecurityandPrivacy.ca
Twitter @datarisk
1 Yonge St. Toronto, Canada
416-431-9012
