Faced with frequent and damaging enumeration attacks, Visa has announced the launch of an AI-powered tool integrated into its updated Visa Account Attack Intelligence (VAAI) system.
The new VAAI Score tool is designed to address costly financial frauds that are causing around $1.1 billion annually in losses and operating costs to the global financial industry.
Enumeration attacks occur when fraudsters apply sophisticated technologies such as botnets and automated scripts to test and exploit vulnerabilities. It is a major and fast-paced fraudulent practice that requires urgent countermeasures.
85% fewer false positives
Paul Fabara, chief risk and customer service officer at Visa, explains: “Enumeration can have lasting impacts on our customers and there is an immediate need for tools that can better detect and prevent these attacks in real time. With VAAI Score, our customers now have access to a real-time risk score that can help detect the likelihood of an enumeration attack so issuers can make more informed decisions about when to block a transaction.”
Visa analysis reveals that 33% of listed accounts typically experience fraud within five days of an attacker gaining access to their payment information. The advanced VAAI Score uses AI to distinguish normal and abnormal transaction patterns in real time, with the goal of stopping and mitigating these attacks.
Visa's new AI model is reportedly trained on “noisy data” to predict complex enumeration attacks and assigns each transaction a risk score in real time for faster response. Visa claims that the tool has achieved an 85% reduction rate in false positive cases compared to other risk models.
“With access to advanced technology, fraudsters are monetizing stolen credentials faster than ever,” said Michael Jabbara, global senior vice president of fraud services at Visa. “Listed transactions impact the entire ecosystem and with VAAI Score, we provide our customers with a sophisticated tool that can help prevent cardholder accounts from being compromised and stop fraudulent transactions before they happen.”
VAAI Score will initially be rolled out to US issuers, with other territories to follow.
