Source: Radio New Zealand
Lumin’s chief executive Max Ferguson says AI-generated fraud is eroding trust. Supplied/Lumin
More than half of businesses have reported AI-generated identity fraud at an average cost of $2.2 million for each attack.
Christchurch-founded document workflow provider Lumin said sophisticated impersonation technology had reached new heights, with 90 percent of the 1000 organisations it surveyed in the United States, New Zealand and Australia concerned their critical workflows were vulnerable to AI-powered fraud.
Ninety percent of New Zealand organisations believed the processes they used to sign, verify, and complete legally binding business contracts, were vulnerable.
Lumin chief executive Max Ferguson said AI-generated fraud was eroding trust.
The findings of its report, Digital Identity in Business: The Threats, Impact, and Opportunities, indicates advancements in AI, were severely eroding business trust, with the majority of New Zealand organisations seeing historical fraud breaches as a major deterrent to collaborate with potential partners.
The report indicates 69 percent of New Zealand businesses would be less willing to work with a partner who recently experienced an identity fraud incident.
“With cybersecurity-threatening AI super intelligence at our doorstep, vulnerable agreement workflows are a goldmine for fraudsters,” the report says.
“When these systems fail, sensitive financial data, corporate information and personal information are exposed. With these breaches often triggering extensive data leaks and devastating financial damage, securing these digital processes is no longer optional.”
Ferguson said the goal was to help businesses improve resilience and ensure New Zealand remained a trusted place to do business.
“I see the reality of this threat everyday with scammers impersonating me to my staff and targeting our accounts team with fake invoices. AI has sharpened these fraud tactics to the point where they directly threaten the trust that keeps our business ecosystem interconnected and operating smoothly,” he said.
“Preventing identity fraud is no longer just an IT responsibility.
“Businesses need to acknowledge that it can strike any department and must be addressed at the boardroom level.
“Industries have to move beyond simply capturing a signature and shift toward verifying the person signing. By evolving how we secure identities now, we can protect our reputation and our future.”
The report indicates two-thirds (67 percent) of New Zealand organisations were planning to increase investment in identity verification technology and processes over the next two years.
“While this investment level still lags behind Australia (82 percent) and the US (78 percent), there is a clear push for modernised solutions, with 85 percent of NZ firms also supporting the introduction of government-issued digital IDs, with the primary motivator being the ability to make identity verification significantly easier.”
Ferguson said New Zealand business leaders needed to take action to make identity fraud protection a strategic priority, by evaluating vulnerabilities and addressing them, without slowing down the signing process.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand