Ai Editorial: Stealing of data continues to be a big headache and companies/ merchants must take responsibility for managing personal data of their customers.
28th May, 2021
“Stealing of data is happening at an industrial scale – happening day in, day out,” said Michael Smith, co-founder, LSA, during the #ATPS Fraud Virtual Conference.
Such incidents take place on a regular basis. For instance, Air India recently admitted that personal data of about 4.5 million passengers had been compromised.
The significance of evaluating where data resides and how an organization ends up suffering because of the same can’t be undermined. Smith mentioned that there are dedicated attacks, and hackers/fraudsters are targeting or looking for any weakness. “One airline found there were 26 different ways in to their system,” shared Smith.
Evaluating and preparing accordingly
An attack on an entity’s data asset resulting in a breach or violation is a big blow, more so when teams have been working remotely.
Certain pertinent issues that have been discussed during various Ai’s webinars in the last year or so:
- The threat of an insider or an employee indulging in a fraudulent activity is on the rise. Certain illegitimate activity is being triggered by remote workers. Point to remember: one cannot misuse or leak they don’t have access to. So either limit access by default or control the size of the potential leak.
- Ai has also learnt that the travel sector is now increasingly suffering owing to certain employees with malicious intent are also working with fraud rings to execute illegitimate transactions.
- Data security isn’t a “set it and forget it” exercise and an ongoing effort is need to address threats to data privacy, data leakage etc.
- Is your data stored in an unsecured external storage service?
Internal fraudster
Businesses shouldn’t overlook the threat posed by internal fraudsters or occupational fraudster.
According to a report by Radar Payments, 20% of all fraud schemes are the result of a collaboration between internal and external fraudsters. The collusion often involves former employees, vendors, suppliers or customers who conspire with a corrupt employee inside the company.
Other than losing data of the company, the travel sector must be wary of what internal fraudsters can do. It has been found that they are indulging in fraudulent activities and are partnering with fraud rings. They are jointly involved in fraudulent ticketing. So it’s employee fraud in addition to regular fraud.
Airlines and travel companies must gear up for data security as well as ways to protect accounts of their customers. If they don’t monitor, plan and act, then the list of mishaps will only grow.
Ritesh Gupta
Ai Team
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