Iovation Names Top 10 Most Trusted Universities for Online Activity

An analysis of online transactions highlights schools with the lowest fraud rates.

The University of California, San Francisco tops a list of the most trusted US universities for online transactions, released this week from online fraud protection company Iovation. The vendor analyzed online activity such as credit applications and e-commerce purchases to determine the top 10 institutions with the lowest fraud rates. The most trusted schools:

  1. University of California, San Francisco
  2. Columbia University
  3. Cornell University
  4. University of Texas
  5. University of Chicago
  6. University of California, Los Angeles
  7. Northwestern University
  8. Texas A&M University
  9. University of Utah
  10. University of Virginia

Iovation used its fraud management solution, ReputationManager 360, to examine schools' online activity over the past six months. It studied transactions from nearly one billion devices, from computers to tablets to mobile phones, to determine if a transaction was originating from a university and if so, whether or not it was fraudulent. For the institutions that made the top-10 list, 0.18 percent of all transactions were found to be fraudulent, compared to an overall rate of 0.8 percent among schools worldwide.

Transactions deemed fraudulent by Iovation include:

  • Account takeovers/hijacking: Account takeovers happen when a criminal tries to use another person's account by gathering a victim's password information or personal info.
  • Auction fraud: In an online auction scheme, a fraudster uses a phony auction to collect a victim's payment information.
  • Card not present fraud: The unauthorized use of a credit or debit card number, the security code printed on the card (if required by the merchant), and the cardholder's address details to purchase products or services in a non-face-to-face setting.
  • Credit card fraud: The use of a fake or stolen credit card, often to create multiple accounts or transactions.
  • Friendly fraud: Any transaction, contested by a customer, where the merchant suspects that the customer or a personal associate (such as a child or spouse) legitimately authorized the transaction in question.
  • Harassment/bullying: When a user abuses or harasses another customer with undesirable language, threats, or unwanted advances. This is often found on social networking and/or online dating sites.
  • Phishing/identity theft: The attempt to illegitimately acquire personal information through phishing, keystroke logging, fake business websites, and other methods.
  • Profile misrepresentation: When a user posts inaccurate information in his profile and/or uses bogus profile photos (most often found on social networking or online dating sites).
  • Spamming: Sending unsolicited bulk messages via e-mail, instant message, post on a social network, etc., to promote products, websites, or companies.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • person signing a bill at a desk with a faint glow around the document. A tablet and laptop are subtly visible in the background, with soft colors and minimal digital elements

    California Governor Signs AI Content Safeguards into Law

    California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed off on a series of landmark artificial intelligence bills, signaling the state’s latest efforts to regulate the burgeoning technology, particularly in response to the misuse of sexually explicit deepfakes. The legislation is aimed at mitigating the risks posed by AI-generated content, as concerns grow over the technology's potential to manipulate images, videos, and voices in ways that could cause significant harm.

  • close-up illustration of a hand signing a legislative document

    California Passes AI Safety Legislation, Awaits Governor's Signature

    California lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a bill that would impose new restrictions on AI technologies, potentially setting a national precedent for regulating the rapidly evolving field. The legislation, known as S.B. 1047, now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk. He has until the end of September to decide whether to sign it into law.

  • illustration of a VPN network with interconnected nodes and lines forming a minimalist network structure

    Report: Increasing Number of Vulnerabilities in OpenVPN

    OpenVPN, a popular open source virtual private network (VPN) system integrated into millions of routers, firmware, PCs, mobile devices and other smart devices, is leaving users open to a growing list of threats, according to a new report from Microsoft.

  • interconnected cubes and circles arranged in a grid-like structure

    Hugging Face Gradio 5 Offers AI-Powered App Creation and Enhanced Security

    Hugging Face has released version 5 of its Gradio open source platform for building machine learning (ML) applications. The update introduces a suite of features focused on expanding access to AI, including a novel AI-powered app creation tool, enhanced web development capabilities, and bolstered security measures.