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Americans Mistrust Companies with Personal Data, Study Shows

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According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, most Americans believe that companies are tracking their activities on and offline, and that this activity is unavoidable. Not only that, but many also believe that they have little control over who can access an array of personal details, such as their location and online activity, including purchases they have made online or in person. This mistrust, coupled with the advent of more stringent data privacy regulations, means a more complex risk landscape for businesses operating online.

While companies often market services that collect data as improving the customer experience, those users likely disagree.

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In fact, 81% of the American public believe that the risks of companies collecting their data outweigh the benefits. This may have to do with a lack of understanding of what companies do with their data—59% say “they have very little/no understanding about what companies do with the data collected.”

It may also be a perceived lack of control over how companies are collecting and using that data, with 81% saying that “they have very little/no control” over companies collecting their data, and 79% “very/somewhat concerned about how companies use the data collected.” With more online activity, 72% of respondents said that “all, almost all or most of what they do online or while using their cellphone is being tracked by advertisers, technology firms or other companies,” and 64% report seeing ads based on their personal data.

Many companies outline how they use customer data in terms of service or other privacy disclaimers—according to the survey, 81% of respondents say they are asked to agree to a privacy policy at least once a month, and 25% almost daily. However, 74% report that they sometimes or never read a company’s privacy policy before agreeing, and only 22% read the entire text if they do read it.

Pew Data Trust

Security is also a worry, with 70% reporting that they feel like their data is less secure than it was five years ago and only 6% saying it is more secure today than in the past.

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Considering the vast array of data breaches, seemingly across all industries, this is likely not surprising.

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Millions of Americans have received notices from their banks, hospitals, or even their hardware store or ride-share app that their personal data has been compromised. According to cybersecurity company Norton, the first half of 2019 saw 3,800 breaches exposing 4.1 billion records, a 54% increase from the first half of 2018.

Given these results, it is no wonder that states, countries, and regions are beginning to enact strict regulations about data privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which provides protections for the data of California residents, also exposes businesses that collect, store, use and disclose those residents’ data to serious liabilities. In response to some companies hiding breaches from the public, states are also weighing stronger breach reporting requirements with larger fines for violations. Whether these efforts will diminish user mistrust is unclear—63% said that “they understand very little or nothing at all about the laws and regulations that are currently in place to protect their data privacy.”

Strategies to Prevent Internal Fraud

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As employees can be key perpetrators of fraud, creating and implementing best practices with regard to insiders is a key part of an enterprise’s everyday risk management procedures. For example, developing internal controls that involve multiple layers of review for financial transactions, and arranging independent reviews of the company’s financial records can prevent malfeasance, detect ongoing fraud and prevent it from continuing.

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In fact, according to Kroll’s 2019 Global Fraud and Risk Report, businesses discovered insider fraud by conducting internal audits 38% of the time, through external audits 20% of the time and from whistleblowers 11% of the time.

Technology solutions provider Column Case Investigative recently examined five common types of fraud that businesses face, including employees falsifying their timesheets to steal money from the company, taking intellectual property or passing off counterfeit items as genuine, funneling money away from vendors to themselves, or soliciting favors or compensation from clients or vendors for preferential treatment. These tactics can impact a company’s profits and expose it to possible litigation, but also pose risk to its reputation with customers and partners, as well as its competitiveness.

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To best mitigate these risks, the provider recommended that companies do their due diligence in the hiring process to detect any warning signs that applicants may have a motive to commit fraud. To limit intellectual property theft and misuse, they should limit access to important information and materials.

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Enterprises can also create clear ethical standards for employee conduct and a positive culture in which workers are happier, more committed to the company and more comfortable reporting fraud when they see or suspect it happening.

Check out the infographic below for more best practices to mitigate employee fraud risks:

Inside a Business Email Compromise Operation

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A new report from cybersecurity company Agari’s Cyber Intelligence Division outlines the operations of a business email compromise (BEC) gang in West Africa, showing that criminals who engage in BEC online theft can have a diverse portfolio of online criminal activity that they use to build their capabilities, and use sophisticated methods to scam their victims, including businesses and government agencies.

BEC is a cyberfraud tactic in which a scammer will contact a target using phishing emails imitating a fellow employee of the target (often someone in the finance department or management) usually seeking to convince the victim to conduct a business transaction, most likely a money transfer to an account run by the scammer. The scammers may also try to trick their victims into clicking a link in an email or visiting a scam website, which could provide the scammers with the victim’s online credentials or download malware onto the victim’s computer and gain access to their company’s network.

As Risk Management previously reported, Beazley Breach Response Services found that BEC-related attacks cost victims an average of $70,960, but the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has estimated that the total “revenues” of BEC attacks doubled in 2018 to $1.3 billion. BEC attacks are also extremely common—approximately two-thirds of IT executives are reportedly dealing with them.

Agari’s report, titled “Scattered Canary: The Evolution of a West African Cybercriminal Startup,” shows that cybercriminal gangs diversify their criminal schemes, using their established infrastructure from one type of scam to facilitate others. Agari researchers named the group Scattered Canary and compared it to a tech startup because of its recruitment and expansion strategy. Scattered Canary has pursued a variety of different criminal social engineering efforts, including:

  • Romance scams: Creating a fake online romantic relationship with a victim and requesting gifts, access to their bank or retirement accounts, or services related to other scams.
  • Check fraud: A scammer offers to purchase an item for more than its advertised price with a check (which is fraudulent), then requests that the seller send the extra amount to a third party (a fictional shipping company, for example).
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  • Credential harvesting: Tricking victims into providing their online credentials, including log-in information for online financial services.

Agari says that Scattered Canary built up a network of members and the skills to easily transfer from one scheme to another.

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The group has used multiple BEC tactics over time, transitioning from tricking employees into carrying out wire transfers from their companies’ bank accounts to convincing victims to buy gift cards that scammers would then cash out via cryptocurrency exchanges.

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More recently, the group has targeted human resource departments to change the direct deposit information for a company’s executive, then cashed out the deposits using prepaid debit cards.

Businesses should train their staff at all levels on how to spot BEC and other types of online scams. If employees can recognize phishing emails and websites, and know not to click links or provide information in response to either, this can protect companies from fraud and significant financial loss. In addition to training staff, the FBI suggests always verifying requests to send money, even if the email requesting the transfer is urgent, by speaking directly to the person who seems to be requesting the money on the phone (using the previously known number, not the one provided in the email) or in person. The FBI also suggests setting up filters that flag email addresses that are similar to the company’s email, and creating an email rule that notes emails coming from outside the company, among other technical steps.

For more from Risk Management about controlling the risks of BEC and other social engineering fraud, check out:

Microsoft Vulnerability A Reminder to Update and Patch

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Microsoft recently announced a major vulnerability to Windows XP, Windows 7 and several older Windows server versions. According to Simon Pope, the company’s director of incident response, “[A]ny future malware that exploits this vulnerability could propagate from vulnerable computer to vulnerable computer in a similar way as the WannaCry malware spread across the globe in 2017.” This announcement reinforces the importance of companies patching security vulnerabilities to mitigate the risk, especially on older machines that still serve essential functions.

This news follows a TechCrunch article reporting that at least a million computers worldwide, mostly in the United States, remain vulnerable to the WannaCry and NotPetya malware because users have not installed the necessary patches. Cybercriminals continue to use this malware, based on hacking tools originally developed by the NSA, to deliver all sorts of malicious software to unsuspecting victims online.

WannaCry is ransomware—malicious software that hijacks a computer and demands payment to regain control—that quickly spreads and has affected businesses, government and individuals in over 150 countries since 2017. Around the same time, a malicious software disguised as ransomware called NotPetya spread worldwide, affecting global business operations, and effectively paralyzing multiple companies in what has been called “the most devastating cyberattack in history.” Both caused massive financial damage worldwide, with WannaCry estimated at $8 billion in damages and NotPetya estimated at $3 billion.

Windows has released patches to protect systems from the newly announced vulnerability, even for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, despite the company not usually offering support for those older systems.

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However, XP users will have to manually download the patches from Microsoft’s update website. According to a 2017 Spiceworks study, businesses worldwide were still running Windows XP on 11% of their laptops and desktops. While that has likely decreased in the past two years, it would still leave a significant number of machines running exposed systems that require manual updates to patch.

Not patching vulnerabilities has led to serious incidents, like the Equifax breach in 2017, which led to the theft of 143 million Americans’ personal information.

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In that case, the US Department of Homeland Security had issued a warning about the vulnerability, a patch for a web application vulnerability had reportedly been available for 2 months before the breach, and Equifax failed to implement the fix. A US House Oversight Committee report blamed the company entirely, saying that Equifax “failed to implement an adequate security program to protect this sensitive data,” and that “such a breach was entirely preventable.”

Companies use numerous different types of software in their daily operations, and software providers issue many patches for their products, which leaves companies overwhelmed. According to an April 2018 Ponemon Institute study, 68% of companies “find it difficult to prioritize what needs to be patched first.” IT staffing limitations and competing priorities within organizations can hinder these efforts, since patching requires heavy time investment and sometimes taking important aspects of the business offline to implement fixes. Companies with third-party partners and supply chains face even more complex risks, since their systems are often integrated or dependent, and companies likely do not have direct control over partners’ systems to ensure patching. Mitigating outside risk by including in contracts stipulations that third-party partners meet certain security requirements can also help.

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