Visa introduces technology to disrupt fraud as it occurs

Visa is offering four new security tools to assist merchants, acquirers and card issuers by disrupting fraud in real time.

Visa Vital Signs is a service that actively monitors transactions and alerts financial institutions of potential fraudulent activity at ATMs; Visa Account Attack Intelligence uses machine learning technology to identify when fraudsters attempt to guess account numbers, expiration dates and security codes through attempted card not present transactions; Visa Payments Threats Lab allows Visa to recreate fraudulent threats and test them against a client’s processing business logic in a safe and controlled environment; and Visa eCommerce Threat Disruption proactively scans the front end of e-commerce websites for payment data skimming malware and allows Visa to alert the client in order to disrupt fraud as it occurs.

“What we are attempting to do is to stop the activity before fraud happens. Take for example the Visa eCommerce Threat Disruption solution which allows us to scan and alert an e-commerce merchant of malware placed on their website by fraudsters to prevent any fraud from happening or minimize the damage,” said David Capezza, senior director of payment fraud disruption at Visa.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

These capabilities feed into a reporting tool called Visa Payment Threat Intelligence which provides actionable cyberintelligence that allows Visa clients and merchants to take proactive steps to prevent, contain and disrupt fraud.

A recent report by Forrester Consulting that was commissioned by Visa found that despite new authentication tools being introduced, many companies continue to rely on static usernames and passwords, making e-commerce merchants more vulnerable. The study found that about 40% of fraud losses and operational costs were a result of card-not-present fraud.

Visa's new tools are already in use, but Capezza would not say which clients are using them. “While the solutions are in place and being used, Visa will continually invest in them, working to improve them as we learn more and as criminals continue to evolve how they defraud banks and merchants,” he added.

These tools are designed to prevent ATM cashout attacks, which the FBI issued a warning about in August of last year. Shortly after the FBI warning, India’s Cosmos Bank suffered an ATM cashout attack that cost it $13 million as attackers used 15,000 withdrawals in India and 28 other countries to carry out the crime.

“Visa Vital Signs is specifically geared to help clients defeat ATM cashout fraud as we monitor transactions and will work with a client to help stamp out ATM fraud as it is occurring,” Capezza said.