That’s a Wrap! Highlights From the 2021 Bankrupting Fraud Summit
We’re very proud of the two days of top-notch content and interactive discussions delivered at the Bankrupting Fraud Summit. Thanks to the 50 industry speakers and 2,500 attendees for making this event a success!
As we come to the end of our 2020 Bankrupting Fraud Summit, it is heart-warming to see the effort that goes into hosting a major industry event pay off. We host the annual Bankrupting Fraud Summit to bring people together to collaborate and fight the menace of fraud. Thanks to our star-studded speaker line-up, attendees got new insights into the latest fraudulent activities – alongside advice on strategic countermeasures to protect against evolving attacks long term.
The Panel Discussions
The CISO panel on ‘Enterprise-Wide Security and Fraud Prevention Trends’ was well attended by CISOs from prominent organizations including Matt Thomlinson of EA, Tyler Healy of DigitalOcean, Christopher Hymes of Riot Games, Julie Tsai of Roblox, Dave Lewis from CISCO, and Ashish Jain of Arkose Labs. The CISOs discussed the latest trends in fraud and account security and how they affect the overall security posture. They shared best practices and tips for keeping large consumer-facing enterprises secure.
We had an extremely knowledgeable panel discuss ‘Fintech Fraud and the Rise of Buy Now Pay Later’. Arthi Rajan Makhija (PayPal), Lenny Gusel (BlockFi), Tom Olk (Zip Co), Sanjib Kalita (Money 20/20), and Vanita Pandey (Arkose Labs) talked about how fraudsters target BNPL, which is one of the hottest subsectors of financial services, having become a $100 billion industry in 2021. The panelists discussed how fraudsters attack BNPL platforms, and how the providers can effectively stop attacks without ruining the seamless user experience BNPL has become known for.
As payments and digital distribution models continue to innovate rapidly, there are predictions that we may well enter into a cashless world by the end of the decade. The panel ‘Securing the Next Stage in the Digital Payments Revolution’ saw Vinay Shiriwastaw (J.P. Morgan), Charles Rosenblatt (Payoneer), Simone Aurighi (Mollie), Deborah Kinsella (Pitney Bowes), and Himanshu Bari (Arkose Labs) discuss the most impactful trends and how to ensure that digital payments are safe and secure.
While safety is a prerequisite in today’s digital transactions, these security measures need not harm user experience. This was precisely the topic of the discussion ‘Enhancing UX with Fraud and Identity Initiatives’ where John Green (Facebook or Metaverse?), Shreyas Nangalia (LinkedIn), Richard Dufty (Arkose Labs), and I discussed the art of creating sophisticated fraud and identity measures that could actually increase both UX and security.
It was an interesting discussion in ‘Innovation Panel: Managing Risk During Digital Transformation’, where panelists discussed why innovation is key for businesses to remain relevant in today’s digital world – for both young disruptors and large enterprises going through digital transformation. Peggy Mangot (PayPal Ventures), Susan French (BBVA), Karthik Rangarajan (Robinhood), Richard Dufty (Arkose Labs), and Vanita Pandey (Arkose Labs) put their heads together on how risk management can be baked into innovation from the outset to secure success.
Justin Davis (Spectrum Labs), Dhruv Ghulati (Factmata), and David Senecal (Arkose Labs) sat together to talk about ‘Abusive Language and Spam on P2P Channels’. While P2P platforms rely heavily on user trust to remain relevant, that trust can get eroded when bad actors send spam and phishing messages to good users on these platforms. The speakers discussed ways to make P2P platforms free from malicious content.
The Deep Dives
Bots are everywhere on the internet; some perform benign functions like search engine bots that crawl the web for content. However, bots are often put to malicious use by fraudsters to commit attacks at scale in a cost-effective manner. In her deep dive on ‘The Business Leader’s Guide to Bots’, Sandy Carielli from Forrester explained how bots are used to create havoc on businesses and what countermeasures can prove effective.
Since 5% of all digital traffic is a credential stuffing attack, these attacks are a bane to both businesses and consumers alike. Fraudsters use stolen and manipulated credentials to compromise accounts, commit downstream fraud, and continue the cybercrime cycle of success. In another deep dive on ATO and Credential Stuffing, Patrice Boffa and David Mouatt of Arkose Labs examined how fraudsters pull off these attacks successfully, and how by understanding this, businesses can effectively stop them.
The Masterclasses
The action was not restricted only to panel discussions, sessions, or deep dives. Participants had a chance to attend masterclasses too.
Kevin Gosschalk demonstrated ‘A Day in the Life of a Fraudster’ to explain how fraudsters get up every day and go to work to make money, just like anyone else. He performed a live demo to provide participants with an in-depth look into the tools that fraudsters use on a daily basis and how they go about creating and launching attacks.
In another masterclass, ‘Dynamic Enforcement: The Missing RBA-MFA Link’, Himanshu Bari of Arkose Labs tackled the dilemma that merchants face – how to test and verify the true intent of a user. As attacks get more and more sneaky, increasing volumes of user activity falls in a gray area between ‘trusted’ and ‘fraudulent’ traffic. Participants in this masterclass learned the best ways to ascertain true user intent, without resorting to out-of-band authentication, thereby protecting conversion rates.
The Keynotes and the Fireside Chat
The highlight of the day and probably one of the most anticipated events was the fireside chat with Brian Krebs, a noted journalist and foremost expert in cybersecurity. In his discussion with our CEO Kevin Gosschalk, Brian discussed the current state of cybercrime, evolving trends, and tales from the field. Interesting anecdotes and real-life stories from the world of cybercrime were truly intriguing. He also explained the challenges businesses face in keeping pace with the evolving tactics of the fraudsters and how these hurdles impede their ability to adapt quickly.
In the closing keynote, Troy Hunt, founder of the popular site Have I Been Pwned? explained why it is safe to say that everyone’s personal information is compromised, given the number and frequency with which data breaches and hacks continue to occur. He discussed in detail the wide-reaching consequences of the problem and what we can do in response.
Collaborate Fearlessly, Eliminate Fraud
In only its second year, our Bankrupting Fraud Virtual Summit has become a huge hit. It has been able to bring together various stakeholders from across the globe to share the best practices that can help bankrupt fraud and resolve the challenge of online abuse. This global participation helped us to better understand the interconnected and global ecosystem of fraud, and discuss industry – and location-specific approaches that can help protect consumers and businesses. Once again, I would like to thank each one of you who contributed to the summit’s success.
If you registered for the summit but somehow could not attend a session, you can request the recorded versions by registering here.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Arkose Labs authored by Lizzie Clitheroe. Read the original post at: https://www.arkoselabs.com/blog/thats-a-wrap-highlights-2021-bankrupting-fraud-summit/
