I recently took advantage of a job shadow program in our Information Security Department (ISD). I joked with our chief information security officer that I was ready to "ride along" with his detectives for our own version of the television drama series Crime Scene Investigations (better known as CSI).

All jokes aside, I enjoyed working with ISD as part of the team rather than as an auditor, a role I have played in the past. We spent a good part of the day walking through layered security programs, vulnerability management, and data loss prevention. Underneath these efforts is an important principle for threat management: you can't defend against what you don't know.

Threat investigations absolutely must uncover, enumerate, and prioritize threats in a timely manner. Digging into each vulnerability hinges on information sharing through adaptable reporting mechanisms that allow ISD to react quickly. ISD also greatly depends on knowledge of high-level threat trends and what could be at stake.

It turns out that many payments professionals and law enforcement agencies also spend a large part of their time investigating threats in the payments system. After my job shadowing, I realized even more how important it is for our payments detectives to have access to efficient, modern information-sharing and threat-reporting tools to understand specific threat trends and loss potential.

One such tool is the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The FBI, which is the lead federal agency for investigating cyberattacks, established the center in May 2000 to receive complaints of internet crime. The mission of the IC3 is two-fold: to provide the public with a reliable and convenient reporting mechanism that captures suspected internet-facilitated criminal activity and to develop effective alliances with industry partners. The agency analyzes and disseminates the information, which contributes to law enforcement work and helps keep the public informed.

The annual IC3 report aggregates and highlights data provided by the general public. The IC3 staff analyze the data to identify trends in internet-facilitated crimes and what those trends may represent. This past year, the most prevalent crime types reported by victims were:

  • Nonpayment/Nondelivery
  • Personal data breach
  • Phishing

The top three crime types with the highest reported losses were:

  • Business email compromise
  • Confidence/Romance fraud
  • Nonpayment/Nondelivery

The report includes threat definitions, how these threats relate to payments businesses, what states are at the highest risk for breaches, and what dollar amounts correspond to each crime type. This is one tool available to uncover, enumerate, and prioritize threats to the payment ecosystem. Do you have other system layers in place to help you start your investigations? If you don't know, it might be time for you to take a "ride along" with your detectives.

Photo of Jessica Washington By Jessica Washington, AAP, payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed