San Jose, CA (PRWEB) February 21, 2012
ThreatMetrix, the fastest-growing provider of integrated cybercrime prevention solutions, announced today the launch of a new mobile software development kit (SDK) that helps identify fraudulent transactions originating from mobile applications. The new product, called TrustDefender Mobile, expands on ThreatMetrixs already established malware detection and cookieless device identification technology for laptops and desktop computers. The same risk-based fraud screening capability that is available to browser-based transactions is now available to mobile applications.
As an embeddable library for smartphone applications, TrustDefender Mobile creates cross- validating device fingerprints based on hardware, operating system and application parameters. It offers ThreatMetrix customers a frictionless experience by embedding risk intelligence into a companys native mobile applications, and ultimately providing comprehensive fraud screening solution across both browser and mobile application transactions.
The PC era is in its sunset years and unfortunately smartphones have more limited form factors that make remote device verification difficult, said Alisdair Faulkner, chief products officer, ThreatMetrix. The iPhone blocks third-party cookies by default and when Apple released iOS 5, gone was the ability to globally identify a device based on its UDID. TrustDefender Mobile ensures that trusted user device identification and reputation is tightly integrated into a single platform for reducing risk across all web transactions and applications. This additional anonymous machine-level intelligence helps identify suspicious activities, such as when a criminal jailbreaks an iPhone in order to wipe the devices identity.
TrustDefender Mobile is introduced during a time when the mobile channel is becoming a hotbed for fraudsters. Enterprise security organizations are still grappling with the increase in the number of unmanaged endpoint devices that are not owned and supported by internal IT. Since many companies are allowing employees to use their own personal mobile device today, confidential company information passes over an unprotected device. There are also personal transactions made on the same device used for work, which if not fully protected, can lead to hacked company information and infiltration, added Faulkner.
Mobile cybercrime is not only a concern for the workplace today, but in a variety of other instances such as mobile banking and mobile commerce. ThreatMetrix found that over the past year, there has been a 500% increase in mobile transaction volumes.
The results of a joint study with The Ponemon Institute in 2011, Mobile Payments & Online Shopping Survey of U.S. Consumers, also revealed the growing popularly and fraud threat of mobile transactions. Only 21% of the survey respondents, U.S. consumers who self-reported they are active users of the Internet, said they felt they are completely protected against fraudsters when conducting mobile banking activities in particular.
Part of the problem with mobile fraud is that consumers dont treat their mobile devices as the tiny computers that they actually are, said Julie Conroy McNelley, analyst with Aite Group. Employees are often willing to download apps of completely unknown provenance. As a case in point, 88% of the top global risk executives said they believe the mobile channel represents the next big point of exposure in financial services fraud.
The ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Defender Platform
In addition to TrustDefender Mobile, other product solutions of the ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Defender Platform include:
