Sonar Launches “Red Flag” Service to Help Banks and Fintechs Verify If Their Customer Data Has Been Leaked in Recent Breaches
July 09 2024 - 12:51PM
Business Wire
New service offers financial institutions an easy way to protect
their customers from malicious account takeovers
Sonar, the leading fraud data sharing consortium, is launching
its new Red Flag service to help banks and fintechs quickly verify
if their customers’ data has been compromised in a breach or used
for fraudulent activities, such as opening accounts, applying for
loans, and making fraudulent online purchases.
With the rise of hacks targeting financial institutions,
customer PII and sensitive bank data have been exposed, enabling
fraudsters to open new accounts with legitimate identities. Sonar’s
Red Flag service helps financial institutions and fintech companies
proactively check if an account is linked to a data breach. If the
credentials are compromised, Sonar returns a red flag status of
“true,” alerting the institution that the credentials are exposed
on the dark web.
"Sonar's new Red Flag service not only supports institutions
directly impacted by breaches but also provides a safeguard for
other banks and fintechs," says Ravi Loganathan, President of
Sonar. “The average consumer has multiple financial accounts across
banks and fintechs. When you consider that many people reuse
passwords across accounts, a single breach can trigger extensive
and far-reaching consequences.”
Sonar’s "Red Flag" service allows its members to check if
exposed credentials are being used in fraudulent transactions.
Sonar will also continue to perform ongoing dark web monitoring to
capture any future leaks.
Key features of the Red Flag service include:
- Free Member Access: The service is provided at no charge
to all companies that join the Sonar data-sharing consortium as
members.
- GLBA Compliance: All data shared under the service
adheres to GLBA regulations, ensuring maximum privacy and
security.
- Minimal PII Needed: Members can inquire using minimal
data and receive a flag identifying if the information is being
used fraudulently.
- Augment Existing Risk Solutions: Companies can use the
service and signals to augment their existing risk management
processes without changing their risk technology stack.
Sardine, one of the founding members of Sonar, is leveraging the
Red Flag service to ensure that stolen data from these hacks do not
impact their customers in any way.
“Recent financial data breaches have exposed user PII from many
different banks, allowing fraudsters to bypass verification checks
that match account and routing numbers to a name,” says Soups
Ranjan, CEO of Sardine. “But, this type of account verification
does NOT necessarily mean that person owns the account. At Sardine,
we incorporate Sonar’s Red Flag service, along with additional
signals to establish a more accurate risk score. These signals
include the use of proxies, emulators, and discrepancies between IP
location and physical address.”
Sonar serves as an independent, member-run utility across
payment rails to assess risk on counter parties. The new Red Flag
service builds on Sonar’s suite of risk solutions that facilitate
data sharing between banks, merchants, and fintechs in order to
proactively stop first-party fraud, scams, and money
laundering.
If you’re interested in joining the Sonar consortium or would
like to request access to the Red Flag service, visit
joinsonar.com.
About Sonar
Sonar is an independent, member-run data consortium for sharing
real-time insights on First-party and Counterparty risk. As a
314(b) designated utility, Sonar is committed to facilitating
collaboration among financial institutions and fintechs to combat
financial crime. Sonar’s approach is centered on establishing trust
and security in financial transactions, irrespective of the payment
rail, by verifying the credentials of all parties involved.
For more information about Sonar, its mission, and how it is
revolutionizing the fight against financial crime, visit
www.joinsonar.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240708808606/en/
Eduardo Lopez Head of Marketing, Sonar Eduardo@joinsonar.com
512-537-9161