In this article…
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus at nisl nunc. Sed et nunc a erat vestibulum faucibus. Sed fermentum placerat mi aliquet vulputate. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas ante dolor, venenatis vitae neque pulvinar, gravida gravida quam. Phasellus tempor rhoncus ante, ac viverra justo scelerisque at. Sed sollicitudin elit vitae est lobortis luctus. Mauris vel ex at metus cursus vestibulum lobortis cursus quam. Donec egestas cursus ex quis molestie. Mauris vel porttitor sapien. Curabitur tempor velit nulla, in tempor enim lacinia vitae. Sed cursus nunc nec auctor aliquam. Morbi fermentum, nisl nec pulvinar dapibus, lectus justo commodo lectus, eu interdum dolor metus et risus. Vivamus bibendum dolor tellus, ut efficitur nibh porttitor nec.
Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Maecenas facilisis pellentesque urna, et porta risus ornare id. Morbi augue sem, finibus quis turpis vitae, lobortis malesuada erat. Nullam vehicula rutrum urna et rutrum. Mauris convallis ac quam eget ornare. Nunc pellentesque risus dapibus nibh auctor tempor. Nulla neque tortor, feugiat in aliquet eget, tempus eget justo. Praesent vehicula aliquet tellus, ac bibendum tortor ullamcorper sit amet. Pellentesque tempus lacus eget aliquet euismod. Nam quis sapien metus. Nam eu interdum orci. Sed consequat, lectus quis interdum placerat, purus leo venenatis mi, ut ullamcorper dui lorem sit amet nunc. Donec semper suscipit quam eu blandit. Sed quis maximus metus. Nullam efficitur efficitur viverra. Curabitur egestas eu arcu in cursus.
H1
H2
H3
H4
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum dapibus ullamcorper ex, sed congue massa. Duis at fringilla nisi. Aenean eu nibh vitae quam auctor ultrices. Donec consequat mattis viverra. Morbi sed egestas ante. Vivamus ornare nulla sapien. Integer mollis semper egestas. Cras vehicula erat eu ligula commodo vestibulum. Fusce at pulvinar urna, ut iaculis eros. Pellentesque volutpat leo non dui aliquet, sagittis auctor tellus accumsan. Curabitur nibh mauris, placerat sed pulvinar in, ullamcorper non nunc. Praesent id imperdiet lorem.
H5
Curabitur id purus est. Fusce porttitor tortor ut ante volutpat egestas. Quisque imperdiet lobortis justo, ac vulputate eros imperdiet ut. Phasellus erat urna, pulvinar id turpis sit amet, aliquet dictum metus. Fusce et dapibus ipsum, at lacinia purus. Vestibulum euismod lectus quis ex porta, eget elementum elit fermentum. Sed semper convallis urna, at ultrices nibh euismod eu. Cras ultrices sem quis arcu fermentum viverra. Nullam hendrerit venenatis orci, id dictum leo elementum et. Sed mattis facilisis lectus ac laoreet. Nam a turpis mattis, egestas augue eu, faucibus ex. Integer pulvinar ut risus id auctor. Sed in mauris convallis, interdum mi non, sodales lorem. Praesent dignissim libero ligula, eu mattis nibh convallis a. Nunc pulvinar venenatis leo, ac rhoncus eros euismod sed. Quisque vulputate faucibus elit, vitae varius arcu congue et.
Ut convallis cursus dictum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Ut eleifend eget erat vitae tempor. Nam tempus pulvinar dui, ac auctor augue pharetra nec. Sed magna augue, interdum a gravida ac, lacinia quis erat. Pellentesque fermentum in enim at tempor. Proin suscipit, odio ut lobortis semper, est dolor maximus elit, ac fringilla lorem ex eu mauris.
- Phasellus vitae elit et dui fermentum ornare. Vestibulum non odio nec nulla accumsan feugiat nec eu nibh. Cras tincidunt sem sed lacinia mollis. Vivamus augue justo, placerat vel euismod vitae, feugiat at sapien. Maecenas sed blandit dolor. Maecenas vel mauris arcu. Morbi id ligula congue, feugiat nisl nec, vulputate purus. Nunc nec aliquet tortor. Maecenas interdum lectus a hendrerit tristique. Ut sit amet feugiat velit.
- Test
- Yes
Updated November 17th Related Posts Link to automotive form, business form
As Valentine’s Day approaches, hearts will melt, but some will inevitably be broken by romance scams. This season of love creates an opportune moment for scammers to prey on individuals feeling lonely or seeking connection. Financial institutions should take this time to warn customers about the heightened risks and encourage vigilance against fraud. In a tale as heart-wrenching as it is cautionary, a French woman named Anne was conned out of nearly $855,000 in a romance scam that lasted over a year. Believing she was communicating with Hollywood star Brad Pitt; Anne was manipulated by scammers who leveraged AI technology to impersonate the actor convincingly. Personalized messages, fabricated photos, and elaborate lies about financial needs made the scam seem credible. Anne’s story, though extreme, highlights the alarming prevalence and sophistication of romance scams in today’s digital age. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), nearly 70,000 Americans reported romance scams in 2022, with losses totaling $1.3 billion—an average of $4,400 per victim. These scams, which play on victims’ emotions, are becoming increasingly common and devastating, targeting individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Financial institutions have a crucial role in protecting their customers from these schemes. The lifecycle of a romance scam Romance scams follow a consistent pattern: Feigned connection: Scammers create fake profiles on social media or dating platforms using attractive photos and minimal personal details. Building trust: Through lavish compliments, romantic conversations, and fabricated sob stories, scammers forge emotional bonds with their targets. Initial financial request: Once trust is established, the scammer asks for small financial favors, often citing emergencies. Escalation: Requests grow larger, with claims of dire situations such as medical emergencies or legal troubles. Disappearance: After draining the victim’s funds, the scammer vanishes, leaving emotional and financial devastation in their wake. Lloyds Banking Group reports that men made up 52% of romance scam victims in 2023, though women lost more on average (£9,083 vs. £5,145). Individuals aged 55-64 were the most susceptible, while those aged 65-74 faced the largest losses, averaging £13,123 per person. Techniques scammers use Romance scammers are experts in manipulation. Common tactics include: Fabricated sob stories: Claims of illness, injury, or imprisonment. Investment opportunities: Offers to “teach” victims about investing. Military or overseas scenarios: Excuses for avoiding in-person meetings. Gift and delivery scams: Requests for money to cover fake customs fees. How financial institutions can help Banks and financial institutions are on the frontlines of combating romance scams. By leveraging technology and adopting proactive measures, they can intercept fraud before it causes irreparable harm. 1. Customer education and awareness Conduct awareness campaigns to educate clients about common scam tactics. Provide tips on recognizing fake profiles and unsolicited requests. Share real-life stories, like Anne’s, to highlight the risks. 2. Advanced data capture solutions Implement systems that gather and analyze real-time customer data, such as IP addresses, browsing history, and device usage patterns. Use behavioral analytics to detect anomalies in customer actions, such as hesitation or rushed transactions, which may indicate stress or coercion. 3. AI and machine learning Utilize AI-driven tools to analyze vast datasets and identify suspicious patterns. Deploy daily adaptive models to keep up with emerging fraud trends. 4. Real-time fraud interception Establish rules and alerts to flag unusual transactions. Intervene with personalized messages before transfers occur, asking “Do you know and trust this person?” Block transactions if fraud is suspected, ensuring customers’ funds are secure. Collaborating for greater impact Financial institutions cannot combat romance scams alone. Partnerships with social media platforms, AI companies, and law enforcement are essential. Social media companies must shut down fake profiles proactively, while regulatory frameworks should enable banks to share information about at-risk customers. Conclusion Romance scams exploit the most vulnerable aspects of human nature: the desire for love and connection. Stories like Anne’s underscore the emotional and financial toll these scams take on victims. However, with robust technological solutions and proactive measures, financial institutions can play a pivotal role in protecting their customers. By staying ahead of fraud trends and educating clients, banks can ensure that the pursuit of love remains a source of joy, not heartbreak. Learn more
As data breaches become an ever-growing threat to businesses, the role of employees in maintaining cybersecurity has never been more critical. Did you know that 82% of data breaches involve the human element1 , such as phishing, stolen credentials, or social engineering tactics? These statistics reveal a direct connection between employee identity theft and business vulnerabilities. In this blog, we’ll explore why protecting your employees’ identities is essential to reducing data breach risk, how employee-focused identity protection programs, and specifically employee identity protection, improve both cybersecurity and employee engagement, and how businesses can implement comprehensive solutions to safeguard sensitive data and enhance overall workforce well-being. The Rising Challenge: Data Breaches and Employee Identity Theft The past few years have seen an exponential rise in data breaches. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 1,571 data compromises in the first half of 2024, impacting more than 1.1 billion individuals – a 490% increase year over year2. A staggering proportion of these breaches originated from compromised employee credentials or phishing attacks. Explore Experian's Employee Benefits Solutions The Link Between Employee Identity Theft and Cybersecurity Risks Phishing and Social EngineeringPhishing attacks remain one of the top strategies used by cybercriminals. These attacks often target employees by exploiting personal information stolen through identity theft. For example, a cybercriminal who gains access to an employee's compromised email or social accounts can use this information to craft realistic phishing messages, tricking them into divulging sensitive company credentials. Compromised Credentials as Entry PointsCompromised employee credentials were responsible for 16% of breaches and were the costliest attack vector, averaging $4.5 million per breach3. When an employee’s identity is stolen, it can give hackers a direct line to your company’s network, jeopardizing sensitive data and infrastructure. The Cost of DowntimeBeyond the financial impact, data breaches disrupt operations, erode customer trust, and harm your brand. For businesses, the average downtime from a breach can last several weeks – time that could otherwise be spent growing revenue and serving clients. Why Businesses Need to Prioritize Employee Identity Protection Protecting employee identities isn’t just a personal benefit – it’s a strategic business decision. Here are three reasons why identity protection for employees is essential to your cybersecurity strategy: 1. Mitigate Human Risk in Cybersecurity Employee mistakes, often resulting from phishing scams or misuse of credentials, are a leading cause of breaches. By equipping employees with identity protection services, businesses can significantly reduce the likelihood of stolen information being exploited by fraudsters and cybercriminals. 2. Boost Employee Engagement and Financial Wellness Providing identity protection as part of an employee benefits package signals that you value your workforce’s security and well-being. Beyond cybersecurity, offering such protections can enhance employee loyalty, reduce stress, and improve productivity. Employers who pair identity protection with financial wellness tools can empower employees to monitor their credit, secure their finances, and protect against fraud, all of which contribute to a more engaged workforce. 3. Enhance Your Brand Reputation A company’s cybersecurity practices are increasingly scrutinized by customers, stakeholders, and regulators. When you demonstrate that you prioritize not just protecting your business, but also safeguarding your employees’ identities, you position your brand as a leader in security and trustworthiness. Practical Strategies to Protect Employee Identities and Reduce Data Breach Risk How can businesses take actionable steps to mitigate risks and protect their employees? Here are some best practices: Offer Comprehensive Identity Protection Solutions A robust identity protection program should include: Real-time monitoring for identity theft Alerts for suspicious activity on personal accounts Data and device protection to protect personal information and devices from identity theft, hacking and other online threats Fraud resolution services for affected employees Credit monitoring and financial wellness tools Leading providers like Experian offer customizable employee benefits packages that provide proactive identity protection, empowering employees to detect and resolve potential risks before they escalate. Invest in Employee Education and Training Cybersecurity is only as strong as your least-informed employee. Provide regular training sessions and provide resources to help employees recognize phishing scams, understand the importance of password hygiene, and learn how to avoid oversharing personal data online. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) MFA adds an extra layer of security, requiring employees to verify their identity using multiple credentials before accessing sensitive systems. This can drastically reduce the risk of compromised credentials being misused. Partner with a Trusted Identity Protection Provider Experian’s suite of employee benefits solutions combines identity protection with financial wellness tools, helping your employees stay secure while also boosting their financial confidence. Only Experian can offer these integrated solutions with unparalleled expertise in both identity protection and credit monitoring. Conclusion: Identity Protection is the Cornerstone of Cybersecurity The rising tide of data breaches means that businesses can no longer afford to overlook the role of employee identity in cybersecurity. By prioritizing identity protection for employees, organizations can reduce the risk of costly breaches and also create a safer, more engaged, and financially secure workforce. Ready to protect your employees and your business? Take the next step toward safeguarding your company’s future. Learn more about Experian’s employee benefits solutions to see how identity protection and financial wellness tools can transform your workplace security and employee engagement. Learn more 1 2024 Experian Data Breach Response Guide 2 Identity Theft Resource Center. H1 2024 Data Breach Analysis 3 2023 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report
By: Matt Sifferlen Ah, fraudulent behavior is currently enjoying a bright shiny moment in the sun in today's pop culture, particularly in the world of sports. Whether it's a college athlete being duped for months by telephone conversations with a non-existent girlfriend, or the world's best known cyclist coming clean on a lifetime of deceit, in both cases we're left shaking our heads and laughing, crying, or cringing while telling ourselves "I'm glad I'm too smart to fall for any of this." But are you just kidding yourself? In the case of the college football player, most of us have been scratching our heads wondering how any adult could possibly get strung along for such an extended period of time by such a scam. But if you take a closer look at the interaction between the athlete and the fraudster, you'll see that the fraudster deployed some typical tactics that allowed him to keep the scam living and breathing. In particular, he continuously kept communicating with the athlete via phone and social media, reinforcing the perception that he's aboveboard and genuinely interested in the athlete's life. We see this in commercial fraud interactions too, where the commercial fraudster will perform expected, normal tasks and activities (e.g. making small payments on loans, placing phone calls to lender support staff) that will reinforce the lender's perception that the fraudster is just another normal client. But unlike the athlete's scenario where the fraudster's story unraveled due to no logical conclusion being planned, commercial fraudsters will string lenders along until they get what they want — then they vanish. Lenders can't get too complacent in their fraud prevention efforts, assuming that the mere presence of normal account activity equates to a validation of a client's authenticity. To complicate things, while electronic communication methods like text messages, emails, and Twitter or Facebook messages offer many convenience advantages, they are ripe for manipulation by fraudsters who certainly find these methods preferable to any awkward face to face encounters with someone they're victimizing. The cyclist that admitted to a lifetime of lies also shines the light on some other tactics that commercial fraudsters might use — using perceived image and reputation to deceive. Fraudsters will often steal identities of licensed professionals (think physicians, dentists) with favorable credit profiles and use their information to apply for commercial credit or services, knowing that they will likely be viewed favorably due to their impressive profiles, at least on paper. In today's world where lightly staffed underwriting teams struggle to keep up with their workloads, it's easy to see why this tactic can help increase the odds that an application might escape closer scrutiny. After all, it's a doctor's office so what could possibly go wrong? A lot, if you're approving someone who really isn't the doctor! An objective evaluation and screening process where underwriting and analyst staff consistently verify all applicant data and not just cherry pick the ones that look suspicious on paper can go a long way towards avoiding this typical trap set by commercial fraudsters. And in the final scenario of art imitating life, there is the recent release of a major motion picture comedy about identify theft. I'm sure anyone who has been a victim of identity theft won't find hilarity in the scenes of the victim's life getting turned upside down, suddenly unable to use his credit cards at the gas station and being asked about transactions that took place somewhere else in the country that he's never visited. But undoubtedly many folks will find this humor hilarious because we probably know of some horror story that a friend or acquaintance has shared with us that is similar to one of the wacky scenarios covered in this movie. So we'll laugh and take comfort in the fact that we're too smart to get scammed like this, but if the FTC is stating that identity theft will affect 1 in 6 people each year then we're fooling ourselves in thinking that our number won't be up at some point soon. So what can be learned from these high profile pop culture events? I think a couple things. First, know your customers (or athletes, heroes, girlfriends). It sounds simple, but make sure they are who they say they are. Whether you're lending to a business or a consumer, there are tools out there that can enable you to objectively screen your applicants and minimize any bias that might get exploited by fraudsters in a manual review heavy process. If you're not cautious and get burnt, you might not have to go on Oprah or Dr. Phil to explain to your management team where things went horribly wrong, but the level of financial and reputational damage inflicted could be a painful lesson for you and your institution. Or if you're really (un)lucky, maybe they'll make a movie about your story — wouldn't that be hilarious? (sarcasm intended)
The purpose of any type of insurance is to protect your most valuable assets. To combat the prevalence of cyber attacks and data breaches, an increasing number of businesses in the health-care, financial services and technology industries have purchased cyber insurance policies to protect themselves from the crippling cost of a data breach. This is especially popular among start-up tech companies in Silicon Valley in order to safeguard their intellectual property (IP) since their IP is the backbone of their livelihood1. Since small businesses generally don’t have a risk manager and IT department dedicated to data security, a good cyber insurance policy can help mitigate cyber security risks. Although accepted in some sectors, cyber insurance is still not an established part of many companies’ IT data security strategies. This is commonly due to a lack of agreed risk management standards and the challenge of substantiating and quantifying losses, in addition to finding objective data to back up cyber insurance claims. Some security experts feel that the federal government needs to kick start growth in this market by requiring government contractors to purchase cyber insurance to set a standard for other businesses, sending a message that any company who has cyber security insurance is a signal that the company is competently managing its data security. As the cyber insurance industry evolves, here is a list of what the policies generally cover and what to look for: First-party claims – Costs incurred by the loss of trade secrets and intellectual property. Third-party claims – Damages a business must pay to customers who sue them for lost or compromised personal information. Business interruption coverage – In the event a data breach incident prevents the company from operating or functioning, the company would receive payment reimbursement for expenses incurred due to loss of business. A forensic IT investigation – Policies can cover the cost of an examination into how the data breach occurred and some may even cover the costs of regulatory fines and penalties in addition to the crisis management control which includes data breach notification letters. Security professionals stress that cyber insurance is not meant to be a substitute for data protection and security policies. In fact, before underwriting a policy, an insurance company will be hyper vigilant in determining that their customers have proper protections and policies in place since the insurance company will want to reduce its own risk. And since insurance has been a positive influence on other industries to improve performance and safety due to risk mitigation, the theory is if a company has cyber insurance, the hope is they will implement proper preventative measures to ensure that they will never have to use it. Learn more about our Data Breach solutions 1http://www3.cfo.com/article/2013/4/data-security_cyber-attacks-cybersecurity-liability-insurance-smb-growth-companies-risk-hogan-lovells
Financial institutions are revisiting their policies and thresholds for lending to small businesses and are slowly loosening restrictions. In a recent survey by the Federal Reserve Board, 9.2 percent of senior loan officers said they have "somewhat" eased their standards for lending to small firms and provided commercial borrowers more leeway, in the form of slightly bigger credit lines and longer maturity terms. Source: CFO eBook, Lending in Limbo