A computer-implemented method for facilitating device fingerprinting, comprising: obtaining device attributes that are associated with a current event that requires authorization from a risk server, wherein the device attributes that are associated with the current event are represented as character strings; determining similarity metrics that indicate a degree of similarity between the device attributes that are associated with the current event and stored device attributes that are associated with previous events and previously created fuzzy device identifiers, wherein the similarity metrics are distances, and determining the similarity metrics comprises: transforming the character strings to numeric values using attribute encoding matrices; and determining distances between a vector that comprises the numeric values and a plurality of other vectors representing the stored device attributes that are associated with the previous events and the previously created fuzzy device identifiers; determining whether at least one of the similarity metrics compares favorably with a threshold; assigning a fuzzy device identifier for the current event, wherein assigning the fuzzy device identifier for the current event comprises creating a new fuzzy device identifier for the current event if none of the similarity metrics compare favorably with the threshold, and wherein assigning the fuzzy device identifier for the current event otherwise comprises selecting a previously created fuzzy device identifier whose similarity metric indicates a higher degree of similarity to the device attributes that are associated with the current event than the other similarity metrics; and providing, the assigned fuzzy device identifier to the risk server, in response to a request from the risk server, wherein the risk server uses the fuzzy device identifier to determine whether to authorize the current event. obtaining device attributes that are associated with a current event that requires authorization from a risk server, wherein the device attributes that are associated with the current event are represented as character strings; determining similarity metrics that indicate a degree of similarity between the device attributes that are associated with the current event and stored device attributes that are associated with previous events and previously created fuzzy device identifiers, wherein the similarity metrics are distances, and determining the similarity metrics comprises: transforming the character strings to numeric values using attribute encoding matrices; and determining distances between a vector that comprises the numeric values and a plurality of other vectors representing the stored device attributes that are associated with the previous events and the previously created fuzzy device identifiers; transforming the character strings to numeric values using attribute encoding matrices; and determining distances between a vector that comprises the numeric values and a plurality of other vectors representing the stored device attributes that are associated with the previous events and the previously created fuzzy device identifiers; determining whether at least one of the similarity metrics compares favorably with a threshold; assigning a fuzzy device identifier for the current event, wherein assigning the fuzzy device identifier for the current event comprises creating a new fuzzy device identifier for the current event if none of the similarity metrics compare favorably with the threshold, and wherein assigning the fuzzy device identifier for the current event otherwise comprises selecting a previously created fuzzy device identifier whose similarity metric indicates a higher degree of similarity to the device attributes that are associated with the current event than the other similarity metrics; and providing, the assigned fuzzy device identifier to the risk server, in response to a request from the risk server, wherein the risk server uses the fuzzy device identifier to determine whether to authorize the current event.