As 2009 comes to a close, the industry begins to look back
and take inventory of the most prominent breaches, hacks, and security
compromises that were endured throughout the past 12 months. With this
assessment, experts can attempt to frontload preventative measures for 2010.
Bank
Info Security recently released its top eight security threats for the
coming year and has placed authentication fraud prominently at number two on
its list. Disturbingly, hackers are proving that they are learning to dodge
even the most personalized of standard authentication measures.
Gartner’s Avivah Litan details “man-in-the-browser” attacks,
which circumvent one-time password (OTP) authentication like those formerly
used by AOL.
OTP authentication requires a physical key to be owned by the consumer and used
to generate single-use passwords that expire in a matter of seconds. Hackers
have also concocted new means of fraudulent call forwarding that dupe phone,
text message, and voice authentication measures. Both of these measures of
defense are widely employed by banks and financial institutions to protect
their most valuable consumer and business accounts.
But, even more disturbing is that hackers aren’t stopping
there. According to the article, two-factor authentication systems are already
coming under early fire, with more intense hacking attempts predicted in 2010.
There’s no doubt that the most up-to-date, comprehensive fraud prevention services
will be essential for the protection of businesses and financial
institutions—especially in the new year.