Carelessness puts consumers and banks at risk in the UK

A vendor-funded survey of UK adults finds many of them are cavalier about ID verification online. One-third, in fact know their ID-sharing practices are dangerous and continue regardless.

Biometric identity verification provider IDnow says its report found that scans and photos of ID cards and passports are being shared by 33 percent of residents in social media, via email and through other insecure online services.

Fraudsters are adept at plucking the communications, which, or course, typically carry biometric identifiers. (The survey of 2,264 people was conducted by research and market analysis firm YouGov.)

Forty-five percent of respondents said this is not news to them and yet they act as if they are somehow immune to online crime. In fact, those 18 years to 24 are by far most likely to practice unsafe ID transfers. Only one in five people over 55 do.

The company, in announcing the survey, said this finding is significant because fraud and money-laundering online are only going to get more efficient with deepfake attacks including hyper-realistic documents.

Not that the problem can be laid at the feet of a generation comfortable putting any aspect of their lives in a message or post.

The Guardian has found someone in London who followed standard ID-sharing guidelines and lost thousands of pounds to cybercriminals.

The Londoner was updating her financial data as part of a home-leasing transaction. Through a commercial process that would be familiar to most people – circuitous, esoteric and tedious – criminals inserted themselves and then cleaned out a bank account from underneath the person.

When the attack was over, even the victim’s iPhone was compromised.

The Guardian reported that of 13 top UK banks, none scored better than 82 percent in terms of online and mobile security. The consumer-financial group Which? did the ranking.

Starling was rated 82 percent and HSBC was 80 percent. Virgin Money scored worst, 52 percent.

Poor security could lead to lawsuits and worse, but another vendor study indicates that efficiently securing customers’ personal data at onboarding is a significant strategy for financial institutions in attracting new clients.

Analytics firm FICO paid an unnamed independent research company to survey 1,000 UK adults.

A third of them said “good fraud protection” is their top priority and 18 percent will walk away if the onboarding process is too cumbersome. And seven out of 10 respondents said they prefer to use fingerprints for biometric identity verification. Biometrics are consumers’ top choice for securing transactions, and face and iris biometrics enjoy similar support to fingerprints, according to the survey.

Article Topics

biometric identifiers  |  data privacy  |  document verification  |  fraud prevention  |  IDnow