Rippleshot Blog

Welcome back to the Data Breach Ripples, we've missed you!

In this week's issue, over 190 million U.S. voter records have been exposed, the BBB warns consumers of fake OPM breach notification letters, a fake IRS spam email is installing malware, the Michaels data breach lawsuit has been thrown out, and for this week's Rippleshot content, we look at three data breach new year resolutions that you should implement in your organization.

As we start 2016 off, is security against data breaches on your company’s new year’s resolutions list? Over 750 data breaches were reported in 2015 and we will likely see an increase in quantity as well as impact in 2016. Experian recently released their annual Data Breach Industry Forecast and while breaches are expected to increase, who they are targeting and their methods are expected to change. Based on this report, we’ve created a helpful list of three things to add to your company’s new year’s resolutions for 2016.

In this week's issue, OPM has finished mailing its data breach notification letters, more than 110 million individuals were involved in 55 healthcare data breaches, 13 million MacKeeper users have their personal information exposed, WordPress hit by hackers and for this week's Rippleshot content, we look at the impact data breaches have on customer loyalty.

With over 700 data breaches in this year alone, data theft is a reality that organizations of all sizes and from all industries need to be conscious of. It’s no longer the norm for organizations to ask “if” they will be the next victim of a data breach, instead asking “when.”

In this week's issue, two Kalahari Resorts were hit by a data breach, the state of Georgia is offering identity protection to six million victims, most organizations still have a lacking data breach response plan, a strain of payment malware affects restaurants in seven States, and for this week's Rippleshot content, 

Everyone knows the holiday season is ripe for card fraud. A survey of Certified Fraud Examiners found that fraud increases 20% during the holidays, accounting for 2.5% of all sales. We talked a few weeks ago about how issuers and merchants are attempting to tackle online fraud, but we’re seeing even more aggressive tactics this holiday season - and the impact on consumer spend is severe.

CHICAGO, December 7, 2015 - Rippleshot, a Chicago-based fraud analytics firm, today announced that it has raised $1.2 million in a bridge round of funding, led by KGC Capital. Other investors include leading financial institutions UMB Bank and Wintrust and FinTech accelerator, SixThirty.

In this week's issue, Target has settled with the affected financial institutions regarding their 2013 data breaches, Paysafe confirms a data breach involving nearly 8 million of its customers, an innovative card skimming scam involving gas station fuel pumos, hackers are selling Netflix login credentials for as low as $1 and in this week's Rippleshot blog post, we investigate "ship to" e-commerce fraud affecting consumers this holiday season. 

Pat yourself on the back, we survived Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For consumers that did not fight the crowds at their favorite retailer or visit their respective websites, holiday shopping for 2015 is underway. 

In this week's issue, a strain of "Cherry Picker" malware has been discovered,  the FB has issued another warning surrounding EMV cards, thousands of mobile apps are leaking millions of credentials, MetroPCS exposes its customer's sensitive information and in this week's Rippleshot content, we look at the types of gift card fraud that can affect financial institutions and merchants. 

With digital gift cards rising to 67% of total gift card sales in December of 2014 (compared to 57% the previous year), it doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this channel is quickly becoming a highly desired target for hackers.

In this week's issue, Arrests In JP Morgan, eTrade and Scottrade Hacks, TouchNote Suffers Data Breach, Hospital To Pay $90,000 Over Laptop Theft, Islamic State Leaks More Than 50,000 Twitter Accounts, and in this week's Rippleshot content, we take a look at the disparity between when a data breach is discovered, to when the justice is delivered to those responosible.

We often hear about the hundreds of data breaches that hamper organizations every year and the impact cybercrime has on merchants, financial institutions and consumers. But rarely do we see the criminals behind these attacks identified by law enforcement, and it is an even rarer sight to see these criminals brought to justice. For many cases involving a data breach, it can take years to gather enough evidence for law enforcement to move forward with an investigation.

In this week's issue,  Optimal Payments is investigating a data breach, retailers continue to push for Chip-And-PIN, pay-at-pump skimming attacks are set to increase, are consumers really using their free credit monitoring and in this week's Rippleshot content, we take a look at what to expect from online fraud in the near future. 

Online fraud is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, but it’s not only because of the EMV conversion. While the new chip cards are forcing hackers to employ different methods of using stolen cardholder information, there’s a separate but perhaps equally as influential statistic at play - the exponential increase in online spending in the United States.