Technology

Visa launches new security service to fight new threats

fraud

Credit card identity and data theft concept. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Visa has launched a new payment security service to help defend against emerging and evolving threats targeting financial institutions and merchants.

The new feature, which was launched during Visa's 2019 Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) Security Summit in Barcelona, Spain, will help prevent and disrupt payment frauds in Africa, Middle East, Europe and Asia.

The forum brought together payment industry experts from risk, business and operational departments of financial institutions, merchants, processors and other payment service providers.

"Cybercriminals attempt to bypass traditional defences by stealing credentials, harvesting data, obtaining privileged access, and attacking trusted third-party supply chains,” said Hector Rodriguez, Regional Risk Officer, CEMEA, Visa.

The new capabilities are available to Visa clients at no additional cost or sign-up, but through Visa’s continued investments in intelligence and technology.

These add to the long list of benefits financial institution and merchant clients enjoy as participants in the Visa global payment network.

Mr Rodriguez said the new payment security capabilities combine payment and cyber intelligence, insights and learnings from breach investigations, and law enforcement engagement to help financial institutions and merchants solve the most critical security challenges.

According to a global report by Forrester Consulting Commisioner by Visa, ATM cash out attacks that exploit vulnerabilities among financial institutions and processors to remove fraud controls to withdraw money from cash machines fraudulently, and automated testing of values and credentials to gain unauthorised access to information and functionality called “enumeration attacks” were among the most prevalent account-related fraud types identified by respondents.

At the same time, card-not-present fraud that includes ecommerce, phone and mail orders was found to be less frequent but caused more damage to businesses—representing nearly 40 percent of fraud losses and operational costs.

Managing payment fraud holistically is imperative to meet these challenges, the company said.