Top Six Takeaways from MRC Vegas 2022
As always MRC Vegas, one of the biggest fintech shows, was buzzing with activity. I was happy to be back in-person with the community that was brimming with the latest insights on evolving attack patterns and eager to share this intelligence with peers and participants
There is always something exciting, something new to discover at MRC Vegas and last week’s event was no different. Topical sessions, exceptional speakers, and fantastic opportunities to network ensured everyone would return more informed and raring to fight new – and existing fraud trends – together.
Here are my top six takeaways from MRC Vegas 2022:
- Innovation and greater digital push in the fintech space have made it an attractive hunting ground for attackers. Buoyed by the popularity of multiple digital payment methods such as Buy Now Pay Later and cryptocurrency platforms – and everything in between, fintech fraud has become wide-spread, targeted, and more complex. Thankfully, fintechs and financial services companies are viewing cyber security in a whole new light now, say from five years ago. This pronounced attention has elevated cyberattacks and account security to the top of the boardroom agenda with a renewed commitment for fraud prevention in a user-centric way.
- Attackers study the prevalent defense mechanisms their target businesses may have deployed. They also leverage the large cybercrime ecosystem to gain any and every piece of information and expertise from fellow attackers. They use this intelligence to improve their attack and evasion techniques. Why can’t businesses do the same?
- It is critical that businesses get up-to-the-minute threat intelligence that can better inform their security strategies and help them fight evolving attacks with confidence. Improved preparedness will help them gain advantage over attackers in the long-run.
- To explore the numerous ways fresh intelligence into the evolving attack types can help businesses protect themselves and their consumers better, I had the privilege of discussing the growing importance of threat intelligence in fighting fraud with Stephanie Olsen, Director of Consumer Trust at Netflix, during a session at the event. At Arkose Labs, we are aware of the role fresh threat intelligence can play in fighting fraud; and we take it seriously. We use real-time risk assessment to inform the challenge-response mechanism that presents proprietary 3D puzzles for consumers to solve. We gather, assimilate, and analyze real-time insights on attackers’ newest tactics and use them to protect global businesses from some of the most challenging attacks. This approach needs the latest threat intelligence continuously. That is why we have Brett Johnson – FBI’s Most-Wanted cybercriminal, identity thief, hacker, and the originator of the dark web – recently join us as Chief Criminal Officer. We leverage his hands-on knowledge on the cybercrime ecosystem to shape our intelligence-gathering strategies and make attacks less attractive for bad actors.
To underscore the importance of early education on fraud and cyberattacks, we took the opportunity to unveil an alphabet book ‘ABCs of Fraud’. Vanita Pandey – our CMO and a mother of two digital-native kids – and I have co-authored this book especially for children, who are now using the internet day in and day out. This increased exposure is making them vulnerable to cyber fraud at a much younger age. In real-life, we teach our children to be wary of talking to strangers. Similarly, we need to educate them on ways to identify and avoid bad people lurking on the internet, trying to profit financially from their naivety. From ‘A is for Account Takeover’ to ‘Z is for Zero Trust’, the book provides simple statements, colorful illustrations and real-life examples to explain the complexities of online fraud. This book is our endeavor to provide adults with an age-appropriate tool to help children gain more knowledge about staying safe from the plethora of bad actors.Taking inspiration from our mission to create an online environment where all consumers are protected from malicious activity, we will donate the proceeds from the sale of the book to help a non-profit organization promote children’s online safety from fraudsters.- Our booth 521 was a hub of activity spiced up with some ‘warrantini’ throughout the event. There was a lot of interest in our product demonstration that showed how businesses can prevent bots and click-farms from executing credential stuffing, account takeover, new fake account registration, scraping, and a plethora of other attacks.
My team and I had a productive outing at MRC Vegas 2022. It was great to catch up informally with our peers over drinks after the show. My sincere thanks to Monique Ruff Bell and Sanjib Kalita from Money20/20, the panelists, and the participants for this wonderful opportunity to interact and learn from their real-life fraud-defense experiences.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Arkose Labs authored by Kevin Gosschalk. Read the original post at: https://www.arkoselabs.com/blog/top-six-takeaways-from-mrc-vegas-2022/
