Ricochet Dynamics-
committed to fighting fraud
Who we are
Ricochet Dynamics was founded by Glenn Harwood, an IT and IT Security professional with over 20 years’ experience in this specialist area.
Glenn has worked across a variety of global industries such as telecommunications, banking, government ministries, consultancies and aviation, in roles which have ranged from Systems Engineer through to Chief Security Officer.
Through this, he has both set up major IT environments from scratch and run existing IT, IT Security and Physical Security departments. In his various roles he has been responsible for servers, operating systems, applications, network devices, security devices, physical security, policies and procedures. He has been heavily involved in operation security, security incident management and security investigations.
Why
This depth and breadth of knowledge prompted the formation of Ricochet Dynamics – the concept behind which stemmed from the aftermath of a routine Credential Stuffing attack. Having successfully thwarted the incident, and put controls in place to prevent a repeat, Glenn took time to ponder the ‘big picture’ behind the occurrence.
95%+
of individuals were completely in the
dark that their credentials had been leaked.
Two things became very clear:
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Firstly, that this incident was simply a variation of incidents that had happened in the past.
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Secondly, that this confirmed the theory that attackers constantly evolve and find new ways to bypass security controls.
In turn, this implied that the industry was simply being too reactive.
One other fact emerged: that less than 5% of affected individuals subsequently contacted knew that their credentials had leaked out, let alone were actively being used. Meaning that more than 95% were completely in the dark.
How to fight back?
Ricochet Dynamics works together with partner businesses in order to reach out to every individual’s account that is identified during an incident. This involves contacting both known and unknown accounts.
Our service creates awareness of this type of online fraud, and helps victims to take steps to protect their credentials in the future.
Crucially, however, it also reduces the effectiveness of stolen credentials, and reduces the benefits to criminals of stealing new ones. We’ve learnt that we can’t stop criminals by simply building bigger walls – but we can make their methods worthless.
What we do
We email each and every account that is identified as having been used during an incident.
(Complying with the GRDP and similar regulations, we are careful to ensure that we do not spam people, and have a number of systems in place to limit the number of emails sent to individuals.)
We provide awareness, guidance and reassurance – whilst stressing that the partner company concerned has suffered no security breach themselves. We walk the individuals through practical, step-by-step ways by which they can make their stolen credentials worthless. Through this, the overall threat to all of us is reduced by a small amount each time. And the more partner organizations that participate, the quicker this will happen.
Where are we based?
Ricochet Dynamics B.V. is registered in the Netherlands by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel) and operates under the registration number: 78302919
The company is entirely cloud based, however for contact purposes we can be reached on the following address:
Ricochet Dynamics B.V.
P.O. Box 75
9930 AB Delfzijl
The Netherlands