ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
While many Americans are away from their computers, celebrating Thanksgiving, cybercriminals are lying in wait to prey on holiday anxieties. Consumers and companies alike are potential targets. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports.
JENNA MCLAUGHLIN, BYLINE: Hackers love the holidays - tryptophan-induced turkey hazes, Black Friday shopping crazes. It's the perfect time to take advantage of people's fears and anxieties, their complacency - to test a company's defenses. But Paul Fabara, Visa's chief risk officer, says he is locked in on what the bad guys are up to.
PAUL FABARA: It's my personal quest. I wake up every day thinking about what else can I do to stop these folks from being successful?
MCLAUGHLIN: That means needing to stay aware of the threats. First of all, Fabara says that cybercriminals are getting really good at gobbling up stolen information and using artificial intelligence to better understand the trends - what we're buying, how we're behaving and where we might be vulnerable to fraud. More specifically, they know that Americans are worried about rising prices thanks to high tariffs on goods, a promise made by the incoming Trump administration.
FABARA: Websites lead with the whole notion of tariffs going up, and then inflation's going to go up, so take advantage of this. And the prices are incredibly good.
MCLAUGHLIN: In fact, probably too good to be true. Fabara says scammers are currently taking aim at electronics - TVs, sound bars - technology whose components are made around the world. The sense of urgency, anxiety and stress - it forces people into making mistakes they might otherwise avoid.
FABARA: And, of course, it's getting closer to the holidays, and they feel that pressure. And that, a lot of times, clouds their judgment when it comes to making the right decision.
MCLAUGHLIN: Plus, attackers are going after companies themselves. A new survey from IT company VikingCloud says that 52% of retailers feel more at risk of cyberattacks during the holiday season. Hackers are deploying bots to buy up inventory or flood websites with denial-of-service attacks. And companies are worried about ransomware. In fact, software provider Blue Yonder has said it was the victim of a recent ransomware attack. The outage has forced employees at Starbucks - one of Blue Yonder's customers - to work manually across the country, which might make it harder to get a latte to power through that holiday shopping spree.
It's a stressful time. Shoppers need to be wary. Double-check that the website hawking a tempting deal is real. Companies need to be vigilant, especially while IT employees might be out of the office celebrating with their families, too. But artificial intelligence isn't just helping the criminals. Fabara says Visa's fraud detection system is scanning for threats 24 hours a day. Sometimes he calls the office in the dead of night, just to make sure.
FABARA: Sunday at, I don't know, 3 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning.
MCLAUGHLIN: After all, hackers never take a holiday.
Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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