According to a new study, most of the Chicago citizens who have been victims of various types of online fraud have also been victimized by cybercriminals’ unauthorized access to their personal information.

The research was released by the National Consumers League (NCL) and Javelin Strategy. The connection between data breaches and fraud is easy to make, as threat actors seek to copy private details of individuals from various systems to specifically use them in fraudulent activities.

At an event about the security of information, Attorney General Lisa Madigan said that “the latest data breaches have served as a wakeup call signaling that government and the private sector need to take serious, meaningful action to curb this growing threat to our financial security.”

According to NCL, the consumers expressed their desire for the government to take more action regarding fraud prevention, as they are losing confidence in the protection abilities of businesses handling sensitive information.

John Breyault from NCL said that consumers expect their information that is shared with both private and government entities to be kept safely and protected from threat actors.

According to the study, about half (49%) of all the fraud victims are not aware of the entity responsible for the compromise of their personal details.

However, the state of Illinois has enacted legislation (Personal Information Protection Act) that requires private and government entities to notify individuals of security breaches that involve personally identifiable information; this includes the name combined with the Social Security number, driver’s license number, as well as financial details.

The research was carried out on residents in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Minneapolis. It states that 72% of the fraud victims in Chicago had been previously served a breach notification letter.

Comparatively, 66% of fraud victims in Minneapolis received an alert, and the highest number of such cases was recorded in Los Angeles (82%) and Miami (80%).

NCL says that last year more than 550 million identities were compromised in 614 data breach incidents, which led to fraudulent activity costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

They give as example the attack on Target, which cost credit unions and community banks about $200 / €148 million for re-issuing 21.8 million credit and debit cards.

The results of the fresh research lead to multiple consequences, such as the fact that consumers are losing their trust in businesses on whose systems their data was compromised. This, in turn, leads to decreased sales for retailers, thus posing economic problems.
Kepler Reviewed by Kepler on . 72% of Fraud Victims in Chicago Resulted from Data Breaches http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news-700/72-of-Fraud-Victims-in-Chicago-Resulted-from-Data-Breaches.jpg According to a new study, most of the Chicago citizens who have been victims of various types of online fraud have also been victimized by cybercriminals’ unauthorized access to their personal information. The research was released by the National Consumers League (NCL) and Javelin Strategy. The connection between data breaches and fraud is easy to make, as threat Rating: 5