Santa Clara Ranks #1 In The U.S. For Online Fraud Origination

PRESS RELEASE

San Jose, Calif. – October 23, 2013 – ThreatMetrix&trade, the fastest-growing provider of integrated cybercrime solutions, today announces data ranking the top U.S. cities for the origination of online fraud. The data reveals that Santa Clara, CA, is the nation's top spot for online fraudsters, followed by San Jose, CA, Chesterfield, MO, New York and Atlanta rounding out the top five.

Leveraging a sample of transactions across more than 1,900 customers, 9,000 websites and 500 million monthly transactions from the ThreatMetrix&trade Global Trust Intelligence Network (The Network), ThreatMetrix reviewed activity from Q3 2013 (July 1-Oct. 1), scoring each transaction with a fraud risk of low, medium or high. High risk transactions often require additional fraud screening or are rejected by businesses. The top 100 U.S. cities were then ranked based on their percent of high and medium risk transactions.

The data shows that the Bay Area in particular is the epicenter for online fraud, with three cities ranked in the top 10 list for origination of online fraud – Santa Clara (1), San Jose (2) and Fremont (6).

"With so many technology companies and extensive technology intelligence in the Bay Area, it's no surprise to see a high rate of online fraud in the area," said Peter Liske, vice president of product management at ThreatMetrix. "As cybercriminals become more sophisticated and identify new ways to compromise businesses and consumers, cities with high technology know-how and connectivity rates are more likely than ever to be attractive targets for cybercriminals. To protect against online fraud, any business operating online needs to take preventative measures and have a strategic fraud screening process in place."

The top 10 list of U.S. cities for online fraud origination, according to ThreatMetrix:

Santa Clara, CA

San Jose, CA

Chesterfield, MO

New York

Atlanta

Fremont, CA

Tempe, AZ

Dallas

Rochester, NY

Miami

Cybercrime has evolved into a severe risk for businesses across industries – including e-commerce, banking, social media, insurance, government, enterprise and others. According to recent data from The Network, ThreatMetrix found that account takeover attempts and payment fraud nearly doubled in a six-month period. Major cities with a high level of transactions are particularly vulnerable to these risks, as cybercriminals take advantage of the opportunity to steal credit card numbers, identities and passwords for personal profit.

Following the launch of The Network earlier this year, ThreatMetrix now offers the only global data repository that provides insight into positive and negative behavior and threat intelligence for both online personas and devices using trust-based authentication. The Network differentiate between good and bad actors in real-time so suspicious transactions can be blocked or require additional screening without inconveniencing authentic customers.

"Through The Network, our customers are now protected against account takeover, payment fraud and identity spoofing attempts with the most comprehensive repository of data on the market," said Liske. "As fraudsters continuously find new ways to automate their attacks, ThreatMetrix continues its commitment to the fight against cybercrime by providing an accurate, instantaneous risk assessment of all transactions."

To view fraud attempts as they happen in real-time, check out the ThreatMetrix&trade Web Fraud Map here: http://www.threatmetrix.com/threatmetrix-labs/web-fraud-map/.

About ThreatMetrix

ThreatMetrix secures Web transactions against account takeover, payment fraud, identity spoofing, malware, and data breaches. The ThreatMetrix Global Trust Intelligence Network, which analyzes 500 million monthly transactions, provides context-based authentication and Web fraud prevention to help companies accelerate revenue, reduce costs and eliminate friction. ThreatMetrix protects more than 1,900 customers and 9,000 websites across a variety of industries, including financial services, enterprise, e-commerce, payments, social networks, government, and insurance. For more information, visit www.threatmetrix.com or call 1-408-200-5755.