Caption: Better data sharing has a big part to play in improving online safety and keeping fraudsters away. Photo: MTStock Studio/ GettyName and address supplied: Financial fraud has come a long way since bank heists. Nowadays, criminals – often working as part of wider gangs – are targeting us digitally.
But because often more than one digital channel is involved in a scam, there is one glaring chink in the armour:While firms in some sectors, such as banking, are showing encouraging signs that they would want to share more intelligence with one another, currently firms in other sectors, such as telecoms, social media platforms work in silos.
All three arguments can – and should – be tackled. But it will take leadership from ministers to make the case. Here’s how Which? would respond to each concern in turn. Second, allay competition concerns by facilitating data sharing hubs. These hubs can allow multiple organisations to contribute to them and could even be anonymous, with encryption technology. When shared fraud information is untraceable to a single organisation intellectual property is protected and companies should have no fear of reputational or service damage.