MasterCard Establishes Relationship with Silver Tail Systems to Combat Online Fraud

PURCHASE, N.Y.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--MasterCard Worldwide and Silver Tail Systems, a leading provider of web session intelligence, announced today a new exclusive relationship that will focus on leveraging and creating innovative solutions to help combat online fraud.

“Web-based navigation-centric solutions view the HTTP stream of a website and analyze in real time the traffic and Web sessions by user and IP addresses”

The companies’ collective expertise will enable merchants to differentiate fraudsters from legitimate consumers in real-time during the online shopping experience.

With eCommerce transactions reaching record levels*, both merchants and consumers benefit from identifying the safest and smartest ways to conduct online transactions.

By combining Silver Tail Systems’ technology with MasterCard’s extensive payments experience and insights, merchants will be better equipped to spot malware or robotic (“bots”) activity originating from personal computers or smart phones attacking their online payments systems.

“Online fraud resulting from malware, viruses and criminal-controlled bots is a serious concern for both merchants and consumers,” says Johan Gerber, Group Head, Global Network Products for MasterCard Worldwide. “With the increased sophistication of these fraud attacks, merchants are finding it more difficult to distinguish between good customers and criminals. Our relationship with Silver Tail Systems allows us to extend beyond the traditional fraud detection methods and provide merchants with a strong defense against fraud, while improving the consumers’ online experience.”

"We are excited to join forces with MasterCard to help reduce fraud for online merchants," says Tim Eades, CEO of Silver Tail Systems. "eCommerce merchants have broadened their focus to embrace the notion of customer interactions, not simply customer transactions. Smart phones, social networks, and app stores represent new catalysts that are forcing merchants to rethink customer interaction with their web presence. Cybercriminals are also exploiting these trends and traditional security tools may not be capable of keeping pace. We provide that granular level of visibility and security throughout consumers' entire online shopping experience, without requiring modification to the end user's device or the back-end website infrastructure."

“Web-based navigation-centric solutions view the HTTP stream of a website and analyze in real time the traffic and Web sessions by user and IP addresses,” says Avivah Litan, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner Research. “This method has been successfully used by Gartner clients to spot malware-based activity that shows up as abnormally quick navigation or navigation that doesn't follow normal human patterns and behavior. It has also been used successfully to identify fraud rings and to gain visibility into attacker patterns and behavior.”

Through the new alliance, which is exclusive within the payments industry, MasterCard and Silver Tail Systems will immediately work together to bring innovative fraud solutions to online merchants in the U.S., while exploring future opportunities to expand the scope and reach of the relationship.

* In 2011, U.S. retail e-commerce spending reached a record $161.5 billion, a 13-percent increase from 2010, according to comScore, which measures digital data.

About MasterCard

MasterCard (NYSE: MA) is a global payments and technology company. It operates the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard’s products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Learn more at http://www.mastercard.com/, follow us on Twitter @mastercardnews or join the conversation on The Heart of Commerce Blog.

About Silver Tail Systems

Silver Tail Systems is a leading provider of web session intelligence and protects the world’s leading websites against fraud and cyberattacks at the navigation layer. Silver Tail Systems' award-winning solutions are made possible by the unmatched expertise of its management and technology teams, who bring deep experience, know-how and personal commitment to protect their customers' businesses against online fraud. For more information, visit Silver Tail Systems at www.silvertailsystems.com.