Human-initiated digital attacks increase by 19% in 2023 while account takeover remains dominant – digital transactions

Account takeover, long a plague for retailers and businesses, remains the most common type of fraud in 2023, according to the latest data from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

The “Trust Amid Chaos” report released on Wednesday found that 28.7% of frauds in 2023 involved account takeover by third parties. Then it happened fraud and bonus fraud, 16% each, and own fraud, 14.6%.

However, in all activities human-initiated attacks increased by 19% globally in 2023 compared to 2022. The growing scale of criminal activity is reflected in the increase in attack rates, particularly in e-commerce and across North America, LexisNexis Risk Solutions says.

Last year, attacks rose to 692 million in North America, up 66% year-over-year. The number of automated bot attacks, at 1.7 billion, fell 4% year over year.

“Cybercriminals continue to increase the scale and complexity of their illegal activities, and specialized fraud centers are becoming a regular place to launch digital attacks on consumers around the world” – Stephen Topliss, vice president of LexisNexis Risk Solutions fraud and identity,” the statement reads.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions also highlighted that remote fraud centers drive much of this activity. North America saw high rates of payment attacks from Vietnam, Mexico and China on e-commerce companies in 2023.

“Device data including high altitude information behavioral biometrics telemetry, shows that specialized remote fraud centers operate in parts of Southeast Asia,” the report says. “Cybercriminals favor border areas in Cambodia, Myanmar and remote parts of Thailand, according to Digital Identity Network.”

The report shows that many fraud rings are targeting North America because of its attractiveness. “The mobile channel attracts more fraudsters, illustrating the need to maintain effective fraud prevention strategies across every channel. The mobile application attack rate increased 47% year-over-year to 1.3%, with a similar increase (63% year-over-year) pushing the mobile browser attack rate to 4.5%.