As AI tools become increasingly powerful, they end up in the hands of cybercriminals, leading to more identity theft and fraud issues. However, the good news is that these tools are also available to financial institutions and cybersecurity firms. Visa is taking a significant step in combating fraud by using a new artificial intelligence tool.
Visa launches a new fight against scammers with AI
The technology used by Visa is based on the same technology used to optimize resumes with AI chatbots, create realistic images, and write creative poetry. However, this tool is trained to analyze financial transactions instead of understanding how words are used by analyzing books, articles, and social media posts.
One type of this fraud is known as a brute force attack. In this attack, a malicious individual uses hundreds of thousands of card information combinations to make payments over the internet. The goal is to find the correct combination of card number, expiration date, and three-digit security code.
A confirmed transaction means valid account information, which can then be sold on the dark web or used for unauthorized purchases. It is stated that such attacks on Visa’s network have caused over 1 billion dollars in damage in the last year, making this type of fraud one of the most common.
The tool Visa uses to prevent this type of fraud is called Visa Account Attack Intelligence (VAAI), a system available since 2019. Now, they have added a scoring system called VAAI Score, assigning an instant risk score to each transaction to better assess the likelihood of such attacks.
Visa aims to help institutions providing card services make better decisions about blocking transactions with VAAI Score. This ensures that valid purchases by real cardholders are not rejected as a precautionary measure. VAAI Score will first be available for institutions providing card services in the USA.
VAAI Score is trained on over 15 billion Visa transactions to learn normal and abnormal transaction patterns and assess previous spending patterns to determine the risk score for each online transaction. Visa’s AI-based tools signify significant progress in cybersecurity and the finance sector.
However, it is not entirely known what new methods AI-supported security tools will offer in the future to prevent fraud. What will be the impact of such technologies on consumer safety and privacy? Feel free to share your comments in the comments section below.
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