The Fraud Blog with Tracy Kitten

Third-Party Risks a Focus at Chicago Summit

Federal Reserve, ABA to Discuss Key Fraud Issues

Third-party risks have been in the spotlight since the Target Corp. breach. And banking institutions are on edge about how they should be addressing those risks, especially when it comes to ensuring security across the payments chain.

See Also: Live Webinar | Navigating Identity Threats: Detection & Response Strategies for Modern Security Challenges

On May 14 in Chicago, at Information Security Media Group's Fraud Summit, our keynote panel will discuss some of the third-party risks card issuers and payments acquirers need to address, as well as how real-time payments could help to improve security.

The keynote, "Payment Card Fraud & the Future of Secure Payment," will include presentations about the state of card fraud and third-party risks from Kirstin Wells of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Doug Johnson of the American Bankers Association and privacy attorney Ron Raether.

As moderator of this panel, I'm looking forward to some healthy debate about the current state of card fraud and its impact on banking institutions, as card issuers and acquirers. I'm also anxious to hear the Fed's take on expectations for securing the payments landscape.

The Fed has been gathering data about how emerging payments are impacting fraud, as well as how improving the speed of payments transactions could help to reduce fraud. I've spoken with the Fed on several occasions about some of this research, but the keynote at the summit will provide more details.

The third-party piece to the card fraud puzzle, of course, is a timely one, too, as banks and credit unions brace for more regulatory oversight on cybersecurity (see FFIEC Plans Cybersecurity Assessments).

Raether, who will compare and contrast the liability and fraud linked to the 2008 Hannaford Brothers card breach and the 2013 Target breach, says banking institutions should be bracing for more third-party protections. "Who's ultimately liable when a third party is breached?" he asks. That's an important question we'll discuss in depth at the summit.

Impact of EMV?

Of course, security is quickly changing in the payments space. As the 2015 liability shift date for card fraud set by Visa and MasterCard looms, banks and retailers have equal incentives to ensure end-to-end security. The liability shift also is expected to be an incentive for merchants and banking institutions to jump on the EMV bandwagon.

How much of an impact compliance with the Europay, MasterCard, Visa standard for card technology will ultimately have on card fraud remains to be seen, but I suspect it to be a hot topic at the May 14 summit.

Johnson will broach the EMV issue during the keynote panel, when he will discuss the role chip cards could play in reducing fraud.

Customer Education

The onus is now on banks to educate their customers about emerging card fraud risks and impending card technology changes.

Bank of the West takes customer education very seriously. David Pollino, who heads up fraud prevention at the bank, points out recent retail breaches should be a springboard for enhancing customer education campaigns.

At the Chicago summit, during his presentation, "Case Study of Customer Awareness: What Works in Fraud Detection, Prevention," Pollino will highlight how banking institutions can turn breaches into educational opportunities.

"It's critical for our customers to understand these issues to protect themselves," he says.

Other Speakers

Among other featured speakers are:

  • Julie Conroy, research director at Aite, who will discuss upticks in mobile banking fraud and the implications for banking institutions;
  • Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, who will review steps banks are taking to implement context-aware security by leveraging big data analytics;
  • Ed Monteagudo, executive vice president of First American Bank, who share perspective about why his bank chose to hold a breached processor accountable for fraud that resulted;
  • Richard Parry, business development director of Turnkey Risk Solutions, who will explore the differences between identity fraud and identity theft, and why banks are too often missing the mark when it comes to recognizing synthetic identities;
  • Mitch Zahler, senior vice president of cybersecurity for HSBC, who will review how the underground economy works and why information sharing among institutions is helping financial services win the battle against cybercriminals.

We have plenty more on tap for next week, when everything from account takeover fraud to the bulging fraud ecosystem will be addressed by fraud experts from across the financial services industry.

For more about our upcoming event, which will be held at the Westin Chicago River North, check out our schedule.

The Chicago Fraud Summit will be followed by:

  • Toronto Fraud Summit - Sept. 9
  • London Fraud Summit - Sept. 23
  • New York Fraud Summit - Oct. 21
  • Dallas Fraud Summit - Nov. 18.

I hope to see you at one of these events.



About the Author

Tracy Kitten

Tracy Kitten

Former Director of Global Events Content and Executive Editor, BankInfoSecurity & CUInfoSecurity

Kitten was director of global events content and an executive editor at ISMG. A veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience, she covered the financial sector for over 10 years. Before joining Information Security Media Group in 2010, she covered the financial self-service industry as the senior editor of ATMmarketplace, part of Networld Media. Kitten has been a regular speaker at domestic and international conferences, and was the keynote at ATMIA's U.S. and Canadian conferences in 2009. She has been quoted by CNN.com, ABC News, Bankrate.com and MSN Money.




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