The Rising Market of Data Theft

As the years go by, data theft is getting more extreme. In 2018 alone, losses of nearly $28 billion resulted from consumer credit and debit card fraud. Criminals are also using technology to enhance how they scope out data, such as skimming, shimming, juice hacking, and using surveillance hardware. In 2013 in Brazil, two dummy ATMs were found installed on top of pre-existing machines. Each featured a display screen, card reader, PIN pad like normal - but the embedded 3G connection and disassembled laptop helped scammers collect consumer data by the swipe.

Due to the commonality of these happenings, financial institutions and banks work constantly to improve their fraud detection systems, aave made great improvements in with the release of the chip card. However, not all chip cards are made the same. In Europe, chip cards are embedded with two-step authentication - requiring a PIN in addition to the card’s insertion. Still, in 2019, less than 5% of Americans were concerned about the safety of their chip card. Interestingly enough, 99% of the nation’s payments were made on chip cards that same year.

The future of physical data theft will emerge closer with technology, such as Juice Jacking - the act of loading malware onto USB charging stations and cables in public places by locking your device and sending your passwords and data to the active scammer. 

There are several things you can do to protect your financial data, which you can find more information on below.