Global E-Commerce: Merchants Under Siege (but Fighting Back)
Report Summary
Global E-Commerce: Merchants Under Siege (but Fighting Back)
The online channel is the greatest source of fraud loss, growing in part because of the low prosecution threat to fraudsters.
Boston, May 21, 2012 – A new report from Aite Group explores pain points and defense strategies surrounding the e-commerce channel. Based on Aite Group surveys and interviews with 22 executives at e-commerce merchants, completed in conjunction with the Merchant Risk Council’s annual conference in March 2012, the report examines various forms of e-commerce fraud and discusses the defense mechanisms being deployed to combat it.
Online sales in North America, Australia, and Europe are growing at a much faster clip than retail store sales. This success comes at a price, however: The online channel represents speed and efficiency for consumers as well as for the cybercriminals who target the financial ecosystem. The bad guys have a robust toolset at their disposal in the form of both sophisticated malware and vast stores of data stolen through numerous database breaches. Further, perpetrating fraud against online merchants rarely results in prosecution; 47% of merchants interviewed say they do not try to prosecute fraud perpetrated against them online, and an additional 21% attempt to prosecute less than 1%.
“In the face of an escalating threat environment, merchants are increasingly deploying layered technology in the form of complex device-printing, behavior analytics, consortium databases, and more,” says Julie Conroy McNelley, research director with Aite Group and author of this report. “Because no specific technology can serve as a silver bullet, merchants must deploy multiple capabilities in conjunction with one another to help detect and prevent the barrage of attacks.”
Vendors mentioned in this report include 41st Parameter, Accertify, Acxiom, Cybersource, Equifax, Ethoca, Experian, iovation, Kount, Retail Decisions, RSA, Silver Tail Systems, and ThreatMetrix.
This 20-page Impact Note contains 10 figures. Clients of Aite Group’s Fraud & AML service can download the report.