ThreatMetrix Highlights Cyber Security Challenges Associated With Increased Connectivity and Smart Devices
San Jose, CA (PRWEB) October 20, 2015 -- ThreatMetrix®, The Digital Identity Company™, today announces cyber security challenges businesses and individuals face, in alignment with this year’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) theme, “Our Shared Responsibility” and week four’s theme, “Your Evolving Digital Life.”
The theme of NCSAM’s fourth week provides a current snapshot of technology, as well as where we envision technology taking us in the future. “Your Evolving Digital Life” highlights the importance of educating all citizens on cyber security as an increasing number of the devices we use – from phones and tablets to home appliances and medical devices – become connected to the Internet.
“Our increasingly connected lives make it that much harder for cyber security to do the same job it was doing a few years ago, before the rise of the ‘smart world’ and the Internet of Things era,” said Andreas Baumhof, chief technology officer at ThreatMetrix. “In the past, it was easy to use one single device for your entire digital identity. Due to the plethora of smart devices in use today, however, we must put more intelligence protections in place to keep cybercriminals at bay.”
ThreatMetrix has outlined challenges associated with our evolving digital world:
• Personal data shared across multiple devices – According to the “ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report: Q2 2015,” 31 percent of transactions now occur on mobile devices. Gone are the days of a desktop work computer and a non-smartphone. Businesses and individuals have become the owners of multiple smart devices, ranging from tablets and wearables to white boards and thermostats. While these devices may simplify our increasingly connected lives, sharing personal data across these digital streams only opens up new attack channels for fraudsters and increases the likelihood for personally identifiable information to be exposed.
• Vulnerable ‘smart’ devices – According to a recent study, 70 percent of Americans plan to own at least one ‘smart’ appliance, such as an Internet-connected smoke detector or refrigerator, within the next five years. These previously unconnected objects can now be accessed anywhere with an Internet connection and controlled on a variety of devices. However, there’s no shortage of vulnerabilities in these devices for fraudsters looking to exploit them and gain access to a user’s data. To avoid security engineering errors and ensure the best protection against attack, cyber security cannot be an afterthought in the development of a device. It must always be a highly prioritized feature.
“Rather than doing their due diligence with cyber security on one personal or work computer, for example, businesses and consumers now have the challenge of keeping all user activity across multiple devices secure,” said Baumhof. “To protect individuals and businesses from the risks associated with their digital lives, cyber security practices are transitioning from a device-focused approach to a digital identity standpoint that protects a user’s online persona and the various connected devices associated with it.”
The growth of connected devices is changing the global commerce and cyber security landscapes as the usage and number of devices carried by an average consumer increases. These consumers continue to seamlessly move between devices to access information, content and services as well as complete transactions, leaving digital footprints that are increasingly breached by cybercriminals to perpetrate fraud across industries. As our digital identities and the cybercriminals attempting to gain access to them evolve, cyber security awareness must continue to grow while integrated fraud prevention solutions continue to adapt.
National Cyber Security Awareness Month is an initiative led by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). NCSAM is designed to engage and educate public and private sector partners through events and initiatives with the goal of raising awareness about cyber security and increasing the resiliency of the U.S. in the event of a cyber incident. The annual initiative features five weekly themes through the end of October, with “Building the Next Generation of Cyber Professionals” as the final upcoming theme.
ThreatMetrix has signed on as an official NCSAM “Champion” and joins a group of organizations dedicated to promoting a safer, more secure and more trusted Internet. For more information about National Cyber Security Awareness Month, the NCSAM Champions program, and how to participate in NCSAM activities, visit http://www.staysafeonline.org/ncsam. You can also follow and use the hashtag #cyberaware on Twitter throughout the month.
ThreatMetrix Resources
• Share this news on Twitter: .@ThreatMetrix highlights challenges associated with increased use of smart devices http://goo.gl/lc7NSF
• Press Release: ThreatMetrix Unveils New Global Alliance Ecosystem
• Press Release: ThreatMetrix to Scale Global Data Center Capacity to Over 200 Million Daily Transactions
• eBook: ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report: Q2 2015
About ThreatMetrix
ThreatMetrix®, The Digital Identity Company™, is the market-leading cloud solution for authenticating digital personas and transactions on the Internet. Verifying more than 15 billion annual transactions supporting 15,000 websites and 4,000 customers globally through the ThreatMetrix® Digital Identity Network, ThreatMetrix secures businesses and end users against account takeover, payment fraud and fraudulent account registrations resulting from malware and data breaches. Key benefits include an improved customer experience, reduced friction, revenue gain, and lower fraud and operational costs. The ThreatMetrix solution is deployed across a variety of industries, including financial services, e-commerce, payments and lending, media, government, and insurance.
For more information, visit http://www.threatmetrix.com or call 1-408-200-5755.
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Beth Kempton, Walker Sands Communications, +1 (312) 241-1178, [email protected]
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