Discover how threat intelligence and dark web monitoring can strengthen your fraud prevention
Threat intelligence, long regarded as a cornerstone of cybersecurity, is becoming a game-changer in the fight against advanced fraud. Even the best legacy fraud systems can reach their limits as attackers get better at finding ways around known detection methods.
Bringing in fresh data from threat intelligence can breathe new life into these systems, helping them stay sharp and effective against constantly changing fraud tactics. Techniques like dark web monitoring, honeypot traps, and real-time threat insights give organizations the edge they need to catch evolving threats, stop attackers in their tracks, and ease the pressure on stretched fraud teams.
This article dives into how adopting a threat intelligence-driven approach can revamp your existing fraud defenses and help you stay one step ahead of fraudsters.
Runtime Threat Intelligence: Staying Ahead of Fast-Moving Attacks
Fraudsters aren’t sitting still—they’re constantly devising new ways to outsmart traditional defenses. That’s where runtime threat intelligence comes in. It provides live, actionable insights into attacks as they unfold, giving fraud teams the data to stay a step ahead.
Think of proactive threat intelligence as your early warning system. It doesn’t just notify you after an attack has occurred—it identifies emerging attack patterns before they can exploit your website or app.
Here’s why runtime threat intelligence is so important:
• Catch attacks in motion: Fraud techniques change constantly; fresher fraud data lets us see these shifts as they happen. We can act before attackers gain ground by spotting abnormal patterns—like traffic from spoofed devices or high-risk geolocations.
• Stay adaptable: With insights into fresh attack methods, like emulators mimicking real devices, your fraud detection models can evolve on the fly, keeping pace with attackers.
One of the best ways to power runtime threat intelligence is by setting traps—honeypots designed to lure attackers. These are active tools for gathering intel on fraudulent behavior. By placing honeypots across both real and bogus web properties, we can draw in malicious traffic and uncover key fraud markers, such as IPs, devices, and tools that fraudsters are using.
This is how honeypots and traps help us outsmart attackers:
• Attract and analyze fraudulent behavior: When fraudsters interact with these traps, they reveal their playbook—how they bypass controls, what tools they use, and what patterns they follow. This intel keeps you one step ahead.
• Boost detection capabilities: Insights gained from honeypots can feed directly into detection models, improving their ability to spot similar attacks in real environments.
Dark Web Monitoring: Shedding Light on Fraud’s Underbelly
The dark web has become a hub for trading stolen credentials, fraud toolkits, and step-by-step guides for bypassing security measures. For fraudsters, it’s a goldmine of resources; for fraud-fighters, it’s a critical source of actionable intelligence. By integrating real-time dark web monitoring into fraud prevention strategies, we can gain the upper hand against emerging threats.
Dark web monitoring isn’t just about observing—it’s about actively uncovering and dissecting the tools and tactics used by attackers. Researchers infiltrate dark web forums, marketplaces, and chat groups to study the latest fraud kits and automation tools. By reverse-engineering these resources, they uncover how attackers exploit vulnerabilities in legacy fraud detection systems and preempt these methods.
How Dark Web Monitoring Works
Effective dark web monitoring relies on a multi-layered approach that combines technology and human intelligence to gather actionable insights:
• Infiltration and Intelligence Gathering: IPQS researchers actively engage in dark web forums and marketplaces to track emerging fraud trends, observe discussions, and gather information on new tools and techniques in development by attackers. This direct involvement provides valuable context on how fraudsters operate and their specific tactics.
• Reverse Engineering Fraud Kits: When researchers obtain fraud toolkits or automated attack scripts, they deconstruct these tools to understand their mechanics. Security teams can update detection systems to counter these threats by identifying how these kits bypass known defenses.
• Monitoring Compromised Credential Databases: Stolen usernames, passwords, and email addresses are among the most common commodities traded on the dark web. Tracking freshly leaked credentials in a dynamic database allows businesses to cross-reference user data, identify compromised accounts, and take preventative action.
Leaked Credentials: An Added Layer of Insight
Stolen credentials are some of a fraudster’s most damaging tools, so they are worth examining in closer detail. Cybercriminals purchase these in bulk from the dark web to:
• Hack into user accounts.
• Create fake accounts for fraudulent activities.
• Exploit free trials or promotional offers.
• Apply for credit or siphon premium content.
Fraudsters typically cycle through these credentials rapidly, targeting login and sign-up points to test their validity. If attackers successfully exploit these credentials, the consequences for businesses can include financial loss, reputational damage, and a loss of customer trust.
Monitoring leaked credentials on the dark web provides valuable insights to detect potential fraud. For example, cross-referencing user login attempts against IPQS databases of compromised credentials can reveal whether a username-password combination has been exposed in a recent breach. This added layer of insight enables you to:
• Proactively secure accounts: Alerting users to change their credentials when compromised data is detected can prevent unauthorized access.
• Detect fraudulent behavior: Login attempts using breached data can serve as a red flag for malicious activity, prompting closer scrutiny or step-up measures.
• Protect platform integrity: Identifying compromised user credentials early helps ensure a safe and trustworthy environment, free from scams, spam, and other forms of abuse.
How IPQS Uses Proprietary Threat Data to Transform Fraud Detection
At IPQS, we don’t just provide tools—we give you access to a vast reservoir of actionable threat intelligence, updated in real time.
Effectively fighting fraud starts with clean, fresh, and proprietary data. With over a decade of experience, we’ve built a system that gives you unmatched visibility into emerging threats. Unlike many companies that rely on third-party data that’s often weeks or even months old, we collect and maintain all our data ourselves. This means you can trust it to always be accurate, timely, and tailored to meet the challenges of modern fraud.
One of the ways we do this is through our global honeypot network. We’ve deployed over 10,000 websites, forms, and tools across the web to attract and analyze fraudulent activity. These honeypots let us gather critical intelligence on botnets, hijacked residential IPs, and compromised devices. By identifying high-risk behavior and spotting new fraud patterns faster than anyone else, we help you stay ahead of malicious actors.
But it doesn’t stop there. We validate this data at scale. Our systems connect to and analyze every IP address on the planet daily. With a rapid update cycle of just 8-24 hours, we can catch even the most advanced and novel fraud as it happens, giving you the insights you need to respond in real time.
Where IPQS Gets Its Threat Intelligence: A Look at Our Data Sources
At IPQS, we've built our approach to combating fraud on a diverse range of real-time data sources. By combining cutting-edge technology with insights from a global network of customers, we provide unparalleled threat intelligence feeds to stay ahead of emerging threats. Here's a breakdown of the key sources fueling our industry-leading fraud prevention systems:
Global Honeypot Network
IPQS uses advanced honeypot systems to lure and detect malicious activity across the internet. With a network of over 110,000 proprietary, strategically deployed honeypots and traps, we capture high-risk data such as fraudulent payments, bot attacks, fake accounts, account takeovers (ATO), click fraud, and stolen user information.
Shared Intelligence on the IPQS Customer Network
With over 3,500 customers worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies, IPQS leverages collective intelligence to detect and mitigate threats faster. Reports of confirmed fraud instances feed into the IPQS Fraud Fusion network, enabling a dynamic defense that quickly adapts to emerging risks.
Dark Web Monitoring
IPQS regularly scans the dark web for new leaks and attack tools used to target businesses. By searching for emails and other personal user information on the dark web, we help prevent identity theft and abusive behavior originating from compromised data.
Industry Blocklists
IPQS maintains the industry's most comprehensive blocklists for abusive behavior and bots, helping mitigate advanced fraud, flag risky accounts, and prevent fraudulent payments.
Conclusion: Embrace the Power of Threat Intelligence
Threat intelligence is no longer the exclusive domain of cybersecurity—it is a critical component of any modern fraud prevention strategy. By incorporating dark web monitoring, runtime intelligence, and honeypots, organizations gain the visibility needed to track the subtle, daily changes in fraud signals and stay ahead of emerging threats.
Attackers are relentless, constantly testing, collaborating, and innovating at a pace that challenges traditional fraud tools. Success lies in leveraging ever-evolving fraud signals to distinguish legitimate activity from malicious behavior. Without this adaptability, even advanced tools can fall behind.
At IPQS, threat intelligence, honeypots, and dark web monitoring are at the heart of what we do. Our commitment to cleaner, fresher, and more actionable data empowers you to detect more fraud, stay ahead of attackers, and achieve unparalleled returns on your investment.
To learn more about how to tap into fresher fraud intelligence through IPQS data feeds and tools, request a meeting.
