I understand that as a result of the Equifax breach, millions of us are under threat of identity theft and account takeover ‒ possibly for the rest of our lives since so much of our personally identifiable info was stolen. I'm pretty familiar with identity theft but would like to know more about account takeover. How does it happen and how can individuals and small businesses prevent it?
Sasha Ware, Merchant Level Salesperson
Sasha,
Massive data breaches that continue to occur have put all of us on edge. There's no way to get sensitive data back once it's available for purchase on the Dark Web. However, we can all take steps to protect ourselves and our businesses. One is to strengthen laws and regulations pertaining to data security, as advocated by Patti Murphy in "Data security should be national priority," The Green Sheet, Oct. 9, 2017, issue 17:10:01.
Another is to take commonsense steps to protect ourselves, our customers and partners. Numerous articles in our archives, as well as elsewhere on the web offer resources for this. One resource geared for payment pros is the SecurityMetrics Learning Center at www.securitymetrics.com/learn. We spotlighted it shortly after it went live in 2015. See "Free online security learning center," The Green Sheet, Aug. 24, 2015, issue 15:08:02.
Account takeover, or account compromise, occurs when a criminal succeeds in accessing a valid user's account and takes control of it for malicious activity. This often involves changing a user's password to lock the user out or changing the user's email address so he or she receives no further communication about the account. We located a free ebook devoted specifically to account takeover: Complete Guide to Preventing Account Takeover published by sift science. You can request it here: https://siftscience.com/landing/ato-ebook#ebook. After you provide your name and email address, you'll receive a link via email where you can download the book.
Editor
It's been quite a year in payments. We'd like to know: What developments have been beneficial to you? What occurred that bugs you? What are your hopes for 2018? Let us know at greensheet@greensheet.com.
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