I am thrilled to join Arkose Labs at a time when the market is clamoring for comprehensive identity and fraud prevention solutions. Today, our enviable and growing list of global customers relies on us to deliver those solutions to protect their consumers and to do it at scale. They are aware that many of these issues are interconnected, dynamic, and difficult to mitigate. Here are a few of my thoughts on some of the important cybersecurity challenges facing businesses today and how we can support them.
Accelerant | The Pace Quickens
All news is now breaking news, missiles are hypersonic (with planes soon to follow), ChatGPT is not only changing our search experience but now writes our term papers, and “fraud” machines are affordable and operate at scale. Everything is just faster, including online fraud and cybercrime. Throw in a myriad of DIY channels, including cybercrime-as-a-service offerings, available on Telegram, Reddit, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and other social channels used by bad actors to share vulnerabilities or launch online scams, and digital consumers are overwhelmed with change and risk. The businesses that serve us are unprepared to navigate those rapidly evolving risks. Add to this humans’ over-reliance on outdated online “protections,” and our behavior just exacerbates the risk.
Decentralized Experience | Federated Trust in a Trustless World
Our digital experience compounds the risk as we link to decentralized networks through third-party apps, use crypto wallets, or our iPhone wallets for Apple Pay. Whether we use Plaid to pay for a new Tesla, or send a Venmo payment, or use our Google account to sign up for a new service, each of these businesses must authenticate “us” and determine if we are operating normally in the context of the transaction.
This becomes a massive task given the huge amount of personal data available through data breaches that provide cybercriminals and machines with almost unlimited credentials, knowledge-based authentications (KBAs), and profiles for their exploitation. To make matters worse, for many of these businesses, it’s the first time they have “seen” us. Asking them to trust the flow through credential provided in the registration can be a Pepcid moment! How do they know it’s not a bot farm on a credential stuffing jaunt? Or bad actors with a list of profiles manually testing the KBAs to reset passwords and account access, trick call center staff, apply for a Wells Fargo loan, or score a Visa credit card using a synthetic identity? These are big issues in a world where increasingly no one trusts anyone.
Soft Targets| The Cost of Fraud
Facing these tough odds, businesses soldier on and often bear the resulting fraud costs, operational expenses, the brand damage associated with fraudulent transactions, and our ire. The reality is the adversaries know where to attack, and they go where it’s easy and cheap! A Hollywood producer once told me that the most profitable movies were the ones produced for $2 million or less – think Rocky and The Blair Witch Project – each with tiny budgets and multimillion-dollar profits. Online fraud is no different. The adversary’s ROI model breaks when the cost of intrusion and compromise begin to eat into their potential profits. It turns out that making compromises is very expensive for cybercriminals, and hardening the target is the most effective deterrent. This is what Arkose Labs does so well.
Protection Imperative| Both B and C
Arkose Labs is committed to protecting consumers and the businesses that serve us. Through our technology platform that stops bot-driven and fraud farm attacks, using Arkose Email Intelligence, behavioral biometric intelligence, and critical identity signals, we are in the fight making fraud expensive, breaking cybercriminals’ fraud ROI models, and protecting all of us!
Once again, I am delighted to be part of the team!
Please contact us here at Arkose Labs to find out how we can protect your organization!
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