Digital Trust & Safety Insider

White hat hackers roam the internet in search of security vulnerabilities. Unlike their black hat counterparts, their goal isn’t to penetrate those vulnerabilities: it’s to make website and business owners aware of their existence. But Alex Rice, co-founder of bug bounty organization HackerOne, explains that they’re playing a dangerous game. Without a culture of vulnerability disclosure, white hat hackers can’t do their job without risking severe legal penalties. Alex Rice sits down with us to chat about how our pursuit of online safety might be causing harm as well as good.

Curve is a London-based fintech startup that’s out to revolutionize the way we make payments. But new technology creates a wealth of opportunity for consumers and fraudsters alike. How does a small team prevent -- and fight -- new and innovative types of fraud? We sit down with Rona Ruthen, head of operations at Curve, to talk about the collision of fraud and fintech.

It’s hard enough building a trust & safety team -- but what if your team spans continents? What if you’re building from scratch? What if you’re dealing with a type of fraud you’ve never seen before? Courtney Bode is marketplace operations manager at Wanelo, where she faced all of these challenges and more. Kevin Lee sits down with Courtney to discuss strategies for success in the changing fraud landscape.

Chargebacks are a common problem -- so common, in fact, that you may think there’s nothing new to say about them. But Denise Aptekar, senior director of global payments at Upwork, has reconceptualized friendly fraud in a way that just might change the way you see chargebacks. How should fraud and risk teams approach this ubiquitous problem? And how might chargebacks be used as a snapshot of customer experience as a whole?

For fraud fighters, the winter holiday stress isn’t limited to buying gifts and entertaining in-laws. Last year, ecommerce fraud spiked by over 30% during the holidays, and it’s projected to get even worse this year. In this episode, we sit down with fraud fighters from Patreon, Wanelo, and Sift Science to get some life-saving tips on how to prepare for the holidays.

If you’re like most people, you probably don’t spend too much time thinking about payroll fraud. You might not even know what it is. In this episode, we sit down with Greg Wilson, risk product specialist at Gusto, to learn why payroll fraud matters more than you realize. Then Greg and Kevin Lee, our trust and safety expert at Sift Science, compare notes on building an effective risk team.

As a former FBI Most Wanted hacker and a current cybersecurity consultant, Brett Johnson has seen the world of online fraud from all angles. Fraud fighters know what comes to mind when someone says “card-not-present fraud” or “account takeover,” but what does a former cybercriminal see that we’re not seeing? In this episode, Brett takes us beyond the buzzwords, shedding valuable light on the types of fraud we’re overlooking, ignoring, or even encouraging.

There’s a reason the Secret Service calls Brett Johnson the “original internet godfather.” This former hacker created the template for dark web marketplaces, escaped from prison twice, landed on the FBI Most Wanted list, and has lived to tell the tale. Now, he’s a sought-after security consultant. We sit down with Brett to chat about what he’s learned on his journey.

So, you've decided you need a trust & safety team. What's the next step? Getting buy-in. But that's easier said than done! How do you convince product managers to invest the resources needed for data scientists, engineers, fraud analysts, and more? Kevin Lee, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift Science, and Paul Rockwell, Head of Trust & Safety at LinkedIn, guide you through the process.

Building a fraud team is one of the most important steps a business can take to reduce risk. But it’s also one of the most difficult. What factors should you weigh while building your team? What pitfalls should you look out for? And what missteps should you avoid? To get the scoop, we talk to two experts: Kevin Lee, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift Science, and Paul Rockwell, Head of Trust and Safety at LinkedIn.