All posts by Guest Contributor
The security world was taken by surprise earlier this month when researchers discovered Heartbleed, a new large-scale threat that exploits a security vulnerability in OpenSSL.
By: Maria Moynihan In less than a year, my information has been compromised twice by a data breach. The companies involved varied significantly by way of size and type, yet both reacted expeditiously to inform me of the incident. As much as I appreciated the quick response and notification, I couldn’t help but wonder how well prepared we all are to handle these types of incidents within our own organizations. I recently read somewhere that data breaches are to be expected – like death and taxes. Can this be true? A recent Ponemon Institute Study, 2013 Cost of a Data Breach, highlighted alarming statistics around the typical impact a breach has on an organization. With costs amounting to approximately $5.4M and impact to brands ranging anywhere from $184M to $330M in losses, organizations cannot afford to pass breaches off as inevitable. Organizations must tighten their security standards, understand the evolving data breach environment and ensure their response plans are continuously enhanced to address emerging issues. To better understand what may lie ahead, Experian has developed six key predictions for how concerns about data breaches will evolve: 1. Data breach cost will be down – but still impactful The cost per record of a data breach will continue to decline, however security incidents and other breaches may still cause significant business disruption if not properly managed. 2. Will the Cloud and Big Data = Big International Breaches? With the rise of the cloud, data is now moving seamlessly across borders making the potential for complex, international breaches more possible. 3. Healthcare Breaches: Opening the Floodgates With the addition of the Healthcare Insurance Exchanges, millions of individuals will be introduced into the healthcare system and as a result, will increase the vulnerability of the already susceptible healthcare industry. 4. A Surge in Adoption of Cyber Insurance Many companies will look beyond investing in technology to protect against attacks and towards the insurance market to manage financial ramifications of breaches. 5. Breach Fatigue – Rise in Consumer Fraud? As the number of reported breaches in the media increases and the frequency of notifications that consumers receive grow, they may become apathetic towards the subject, thereby exposing themselves to greater risk. 6. Beyond the Regulatory Check Box State regulators and law enforcement will turn a new leaf this year, devoting significant attention to helping organizations better manage breaches. What is your organization doing to improve its data breach preparedness plan? Check out our 2014 Data Breach Industry Forecast and guide to handling data breach response. Check out other related content on data breach resolution.
A recent survey focusing on the credit behavior of Millennials (age group 18 to 30) shows that 90 percent are familiar with cosigning and two-thirds have used a cosigner in the past.
Bankcard originations had a 32 percent year-over-year increase in Q4 2013 ($61 billion to $81 billion).
In an effort to understand consumer needs better and help lenders educate their customers, VantageScore® Solutions surveyed more than 200 lenders nationwide on the topic of score reason codes.
Auto financing became easier to obtain in Q4 2013 and the market share for new vehicle loans in the nonprime, subprime and deep-subprime credit tiers increased slightly to 34.1 percent of all new loans, up from 32.8 percent in Q4 2012.
According to Experian Marketing Services' annual Email Market Study, personalized promotional emails have 29 percent higher unique open rates and 41 percent higher unique click rates than nonpersonalized mailings.
The most recent Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market report shows more consumers are leasing vehicles. Leases accounted for 28.4 percent of all new vehicles financed in Q4 2013 - the highest level on record since 2006.
While access to small-business credit is improving and credit balances are increasing, key differences still remain across the United States.
Using a risk model based on older data can result in reduced predictive power.
Findings from the most recent Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market report show outstanding automotive loan balances increased 11 percent from Q4 2012, reaching $798.5 billion in Q4 2013 — the highest level since 2007.
The housing market continues to recover, with mortgage originations increasing 12 percent year over year, moving from $508 billion to $570 billion.
Small-business credit conditions wrapped up the year by showing continued improvement for the fourth consecutive quarter.
By: Matt Sifferlen On January 17th, we celebrated the 308th birthday of one of America's most famous founding fathers, Ben Franklin. I've been a lifelong fan of his after reading his biography while in middle school, and each year when his birthday rolls around I'm inspired to research him a bit more since there is always something new to learn about his many meaningful contributions to this great nation. I find Ben a true inspiration for his capacity for knowledge, investigation, innovation, and of course for his many witty and memorable quotes. I think Ben would have been an exceptional blogger back in his day, raising the bar even higher for Seth Godin (one of my personal favorites) and other uber bloggers of today. And as a product manager, I highly respect Ben's lifelong devotion to improving society by finding practical solutions to complex problems. Upon a closer examination of many of Ben's quotes, I now feel that Ben was also a pioneer in providing useful lessons in commercial fraud prevention. Below is just a small sampling of what I mean. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” - Preventing commercial fraud before it happens is the key to saving your organization's profits and reputation from harmful damage. If you're focused on detecting fraud after the fact, you've already lost. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” - Despite the high costs associated with commercial fraud losses, many organizations don't have a process in place to prevent it. This is primarily due to the fact that commercial fraud happens at a much lower frequency than consumer fraud. Are you one of those businesses that thinks "it'll never happen to me?" “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” - So you didn't follow the advice of the first two quotes, and now you're feeling the pain and embarrassment that accompanies commercial fraud. Have you learned your lesson yet? “After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser.” Ah, no lender likes losses. Nothing like a little scar tissue from "bad deals" related to fraud to remind you of decisions and processes that need to be improved in order to avoid history repeating itself. “Honesty is the best policy.” - Lots of businesses stumble on this part, failing to communicate when they've been compromised by fraud or failing to describe the true scope of the damage. Be honest (quickly!) and set expectations about what you're doing to limit the damage and prevent similar instances in the future. “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” - Being too late is a big concern when it comes to fraud prevention. It's impossible to prevent 100% of all fraud, but that shouldn't stop you from making sure that you have adequate preventive processes in place at your organization. “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.” - Get a plan together now to deal with fraud scenarios that your business might be exposed to. Data breaches, online fraud and identity theft rates are higher than they've ever been. Shame on those businesses that aren't getting prepared now. “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” - I highly doubt Ben actually said this, but some Internet sites attribute it to him. If you already follow all of his advice above, then maybe you can reward yourself with a nice pale ale of your choice! So Ben can not only be considered the "First American," but he can also be considered one of the first fraud prevention visionaries. Guess we'll need to add one more thing to his long list of accomplishments!
Delinquency rates for auto loans moved up slightly in the last quarter of 2013, with the 30 to 59 days past due (DPD), 60 to 89 DPD and 90 to 180 DPD delinquency rates at 2.18 percent, 0.56 percent and 0.24 percent, respectively.