New Offering From Breach Clarity Gives Financial Institutions Hyper-Personalized, Customer-Level Breach Risk Intelligence

Solution identifies the precise customers and data impacted by every publicly reported data breach in real time


(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – February 18, 2020)
– Fraud prevention and detection technology firm Breach Clarity, which analyzes and scores every publicly reported U.S. data breach based on more than 1,000 factors, has developed a new machine learning platform for financial service providers to enable highly targeted protections for customers. Underpinned by a proprietary algorithm developed by data security expert Jim Van Dyke, the platform offers two sets of tools: one for the provider and another for the consumer.

Earlier this year, Van Dyke launched BreachClarity.com, a consumer site that offers no-cost access to a searchable database of breaches, their respective Breach Clarity Scores and the most relevant protective actions. The database now includes more than 4,000 incidents, and is growing at an average rate of 50 breaches each week.

According to Van Dyke, Breach Clarity Premium for Financial Services solves several of the most common problems faced by banks, credit unions, card issuers and other financial providers after a public data breach. “Financial institutions are in a bad spot when it comes to data breach fallout,” said Van Dyke. “These breaches, most of which they have zero control over, are coming fast and furious, yet the actual damage can take years to occur. We first developed Breach Clarity to help the consumer fight back against the routine theft of their personal information. Now, we’re equipping their financial providers with much greater intelligence to help them strengthen everyone’s financial health.”

For the provider, Breach Clarity Premium generates:

Clarity around impacted customers and stolen data – Breach Clarity Premium identifies and analyzes breaches affecting the customer. The platform factors the types of personally identifiable information (PII) exposed in any particular breach to predict the types of identity fraud risk it creates. It also generates recommendations on the most effective actions to mitigate both the consumer and the financial provider’s losses.

Easier security activation for customers – To empower their customers in the fight against identity theft and other breach-originating crimes, most financial institutions provide their customers with at least one security control tool or feature. The tools are often expensive for the financial provider, and on average, not many customers use them. Breach Clarity Premium plugs seamlessly into online and mobile banking apps to create a simple, event-driven pathway for customers to activate those controls.

Reduction in contact center volume – Inbound calls, emails and chats can swell to unmanageable levels during news reports of a major data breach. Breach Clarity Premium helps address customers’ concerns and questions after a data breach, eliminating the need to engage the financial provider through other channels.

For the customer, Breach Clarity Premium provides:

  • A simple, trusted alternative to today’s onslaught of news related to identity scams and fraud, provided directly through their financial provider’s online banking or mobile app.
  • Powerful information on the risks created by each data breach affecting them, including a Breach Clarity Score and incident-specific action steps.
  • A custom breach history that includes all breaches impacting the customer.
  • The ability to locate breaches the customer may be unaware of using only their email address.

“A platform like this is what the financial services industry has been missing,” said Tom Shaw, Breach Clarity advisory board member and former VP of financial crimes management for USAA. “Banks and credit unions are deploying all kinds of strategies and technologies to protect the institution and the customer from the fallout of data breaches. Rarely are those response mechanisms tailored precisely to the customers impacted. Breach Clarity has figured out how enable a hyper-personalized response, and to do it at scale.”

About Breach Clarity

Breach Clarity’s proprietary, machine learning algorithm instantly analyzes more than 1,000 elements to score the risk level of a data breach. Each publicly reported data breach in the U.S. receives a Breach Clarity Score on a simple numerical scale, typically from 1 to 10. Breach Clarity’s dynamic algorithm and easy-to-use interface runs on the most comprehensive source of data breaches in the U.S., maintained and updated continuously by the Identity Theft Resource Center. To learn more, or to check the score of a recent data breach, visit breachclarity.com.