Data breaches directly impact customer’s trust, loyalty, and perception about an enterprise’s alertness towards cybersecurity and safety of financial data of their consumers.
In this article at InfoSecurity, Andy Still explains the significance of ‘customer loyalty points’ for financial institutions or banks.
Digitization: Made Hackers Job Easier
Hackers are humans too, who are equally happy to follow the path of minimum struggle. The banks and financial institutions are aware of the implications of a cyber breach to their reputation. So, they abide by complex cybersecurity solutions.
To steal data and to violate online banking systems, hackers need a sound plan, in-depth knowledge of weaknesses, and considerable effort. But if they get customer loyalty points, their job will become seamless. So, instead of stealing money, cybercriminals aim to get highly secured ‘customer loyalty points.’
Be Cautious! It’s a Grave Threat
Consumers tend to cancel all the credit or debit cards in case of wallet loss, but very few take action to maintain the security of their loyalty points. Education and awareness do play a significant role. However, most unfortunate incidents occur due to sheer carelessness.
Often consumers lack vigilance over loyalty points the way they keep track of their bank balance. As a result, customer loyalty thefts remain unnoticed for months or years. Meaningful learning here is for the consumers and enterprises who do not take a loyalty point threat as sincerely as the banks or financial institutions do.
Crime Without Criminal
Surprisingly, the cyber hacking of loyalty points is not a real threat in this case. The real threat is the misuse of technology and business logic done by automated ‘seat spinning’ bots. These bots flip the price of commodities online and showcase revised rates to legitimate consumers. The consumers look for other online options available to get better prices through third-party sellers. The sellers are part of the plan and use bots to maintain the high costs of the commodities. Naïve consumers pay money for a third-party offer, use loyalty points to get a bargain on mark-up price. The automated mediators gain profit as the consumers pay for loyalty point benefits. Click on the following link to read the original article: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/insecure-loyalty-dark-web-currency/
