The total number of account takeover attempts reported by financial institutions has more than tripled since 2009, according to survey results from the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

The second Account Takeover Survey from FS-ISAC's Account Takeover Task Force found that financial institutions reported 87 account takeover attempts in 2009, 239 in 2010 and 314 annualized in 2011.

The survey, conducted by the American Bankers Association, questioned 100 financial services firms for the entire years of 2009 and 2010, and for the first half of 2011.

FS-ISAC shared several positive results as well: the percentage of account takeover cases in which monetary transactions were created and funds exited the financial institution decreased from 70% in 2009 to 32% in 2010 and 2011.

The percentage of account takeover cases that were halted before funds left the financial institution increased from 24% in 2009 to 44% in 2010 and fell slightly to 41% in 2011.

Actual dollar loss amounts stabilized for financial institutions and dropped for customers in the two-and-a-half-year time period, FS-ISAC said. The amount reported for financial institutions fluctuated from about $732,000 in 2009 to $3.1 million in 2010 to $777,000 annualized in 2011. Customer losses fell from around $944,000 in 2009 and $1.2 million in 2010 to $490,000 annualized in 2011.

Survey respondents also named their top solutions for reducing account takeover fraud. The four highest-ranked solutions were customer education, implementation of a new multi-factor authentication system, cutting off customers' online commercial system access in cases of anomalous activity detection, and improving upon an existing multi-factor authentication system.

Based in Reston, Va., and founded in 1999, FS-ISAC is a non-profit organization dedicated to combating security threats in the financial services sector.

Instant Insights /

FS-ISAC Survey Shows Uptick in Account Takeover Attempts, Drop in Actual Losses

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