Data garnered by a cybersecurity research firm showed the number of credit cards for sale on the dark web has roughly quadrupled over the past two years.
Officials said a new report from IntSights, which examined threats facing financial institutions, determined the credit card sales represent a 135 percent increase from the first half of 2017 through the first half of 2018.
IntSights’ report incorporated last year’s Equifax data breach, officials said, which revealed the personal financial information of more than 147 million Americans, as one of the most notable data breaches.
A National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Economic and CU Monitor survey after the breach announcement revealed 63 percent of credit unions were concerned about another Equifax-type data breach.
IntSights personnel said the report also noted that, rather than hacking into corporate systems, cybercriminals are now creating fake mobile banking applications and social media pages under the guise of credible financial institutions to obtain consumers’ financial information. Fake applications have fooled more than one-third of mobile banking users.
NAFCU serves as a leading advocate of data security and is working to ensure entities holding or collecting consumers’ personal financial information are held to similar standards as credit unions.