Visa has announced its plans to introduce new measures to mitigate the rise of AI-enabled fraud in New Zealand, including real-time analytics, biometric authentication, and distancing itself from outdated security mechanisms.
Rolling out its latest Security Roadmap for New Zealand, Visa’s three-year strategy seeks to safeguard consumers and businesses from the evolving cyber threats. The initiative follows a substantial increase in scams and payment fraud in the region, with AI-powered digital fraud scaling rapidly.
Combatting AI-enabled fraud with AI
To mitigate this growing threat, Visa’s Security Roadmap creates the key areas for the investment of banks and financial institutions until 2028, with the company planning to prevent enumeration attacks, modernise authentication, adopt a data-drive, risk -based approach to managing risks, solidify resilience against AI-driven scams, improve cybersecurity across the industry, and secure digital payments through optimal protocols.
Furthermore, to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in protecting both themselves and their customers, Visa introduced the SMB Fraud Prevention Toolkit, a suite of practical tips and resources to assist small business owners. The service offers step-by-step guidance on identifying, preventing, and responding to threats, including phishing, ransomware, billing scams, card-not-present fraud, and enumeration attacks. Additionally, Visa’s toolkit promotes best practices such as multi-factor authentication, employee awareness training, secure online transaction protocols, and real-time payment monitoring. The company developed the service to meet the needs of businesses of varying sizes and industries and focuses on implementing a proactive approach to cybersecurity.
Visa’s Roadmap for New Zealand also underlines the importance of sustainable funding to maintain and augment fraud prevention features. These mechanisms assist in the infrastructure behind secure payments, including AI systems, biometric authentication, 24/7 fraud monitoring, and tokenization.
Visa aims to continue to closely collaborate with banks, acquirers, merchants, and government agencies to implement its security roadmap across the region and ensure that individuals residing in New Zealand are safeguarded in the digital economy.
