Fighting Cyber-Enabled Fraud 2025

Depiction of the digital ecosystem* FIGURE 1 * This white paper focuses primarily on upstream digital infrastructure services that underpin internet functionality and serve as high-leverage intervention points for countering phishing and cyber-enabled fraud. The analysis is not exhaustive and does not address every contributing factor or intervention opportunity (e.g. consumer-facing platforms that may serve as delivery mechanisms). Source: World Economic Forum and IST This paper is the culmination of a year-long study by the World Economic Forum and the Institute for Security and Technology (IST), supported by standing members of the Partnership against Cybercrime and informed by many other experts. Drawing on in-depth research, community meetings and workshops, together with expert consultations, this effort sits in the space between public awareness initiatives – which aim to educate users about online risks – and law enforcement disruption campaigns that target criminal networks once harm has occurred. It focuses on the systemic layer in between: the policies, standards and operational practices that can prevent abuse from taking root in the first place and enable more rapid detection of and response to in-progress abuse. Cyber-enabled fraud erodes trust and targets the most vulnerable. To counter it, we must act together – governments, businesses and individuals – sharing intelligence, strengthening defences and making cyber resilience a national priority. Sami Khoury, Government of Canada Senior Official for Cyber Security Payments Backbone internet service providers (backbone ISPs) The domain name system (DNS) Public key infrastructure (PKI), including TLS certificate infrastructure Web hosting Reverse proxy and content delivery network (CDN) services Email, messaging and telephony platforms Network access internet service providers (ISPs) Users Downstream Upstream Fighting Cyber-Enabled Fraud: A Systemic Defence Approach 6