It would be a shame if customers found out their account had been compromised by wrongdoers. Don’t let this happen by utilizing account takeover prevention, as well as the best strategies to protect the customers.
As simple as it seems, account takeover is no mere cyber theft. The report from the 2024 State of Cloud Account Takeover Attacks states 77% of security leaders ranked account takeover as one of the top 4 cyber threats.
Worse, almost half of organizations in the same report received this attack more than five times in the last year. It is a good idea to not underestimate such a threat, so let’s delve into how to prevent account takeover.
Understanding Account Takeover
Account takeover definition is exactly as the term suggests: an attempt to gain unauthorized access to take over someone’s account. Fraudsters can use this account to conduct various illegal activities, mostly to gain profit.
This particular attack can happen almost anywhere on the internet, ranging from e-commerce to social media and even online games. As long as the digital service requires an online account, it can be taken over.
It may take some time for a victim to realize their account has been compromised, but there are telltales of an account takeover attack happening:
- A sudden login notification popped up on the device, prompting an attempt of log in made by someone else.
- Account suddenly logged out, which happens when someone else logs in using the same account as the victim’s.
- Notification about transactions appears out of the blue, which is a sign of someone taking over the victim’s account to make an unauthorized transaction.
5 Methods of Account Takeover
Account takeover prevention exists because of how many methods a fraudster can use to steal someone’s account. Here are several examples of their most well-known methods:
1. Phishing
Fraudsters can lure victims by clicking fake links that mimic legitimate official sites. By typing their login credentials, victims will be unaware that now the fraudsters have access to the account.
This method is usually done by pretending to be an official representation of the services that the victim uses. Attackers sometimes push victims by giving them a sense of urgency, making them act immediately.
2. Malware
Malware, or malicious software, is a program designed to steal valuable information from a victim’s device once installed. Usually, fraudsters attach malware to downloadable files victims can download from unknown sources.
There are various functions that malware has in order to steal account information from victims. Starting from recording keystrokes, spying on device screens, and stealing specific files.
3. Credential Stuffing
There is a possibility that the victim may use a similar username and password for many online accounts. This allows fraudsters to easily attempt to take over the victim’s entire accounts in just a matter of hours.
By obtaining leaked login data from the dark web, all they need now is to use automated tools and try to log in with the stolen login data. This is the main reason people shouldn’t reuse their username and password again.
4. Social Engineering
This method is usually accompanied by phishing, where fraudsters psychologically trick victims into share their login credentials. By pretending to be someone close or their relatives, it is hard for victims to doubt them.
With the use of AI (artificial intelligence), they can call them using the voice of the victim’s relatives to make them fully trust fraudsters. Besides, it’s not rare for spouses to know each other’s passwords.
5. Password Cracking
If all else fails, fraudsters will simply force their way to the account by doing password cracking. This method lets them try to gain unauthorized access by figuring out what the password is.
To figure it out, fraudsters need special automated tools to try guessing the right combination repeatedly. This is the reason why passwords need to be long, to avoid having accounts breached over password cracking.
The Risks of Account Takeover for Financial Services
For financial services, this attack poses great risk if not being taken seriously. These are several examples of financial account takeover risk that impact customers and service owners:
- Financial loss, not just the account itself. Fraudsters will use the account to make a purchase or transfer all the account balance to their own.
- Increased operating costs. Financial services will need to compensate the victim’s losses, as well as to investigate the perpetrator behind the fraud.
- Damaged reputation and customer trust. Customers will no longer entrust financial services that are unable to provide a secure environment to their accounts.
- Financial services face legal punishments. This is because it is an obligation for them to maintain the security for their customers’ accounts.
Best Strategies to Prevent Account Takeover
While the consequences of account takeover sound dire, it is not completely hopeless. There are ways financial services can implement account takeover prevention:
Enhanced Security Measures
First, implement a stronger security system for the services. For instance, if a compromise has been detected, financial services can lock all accounts until the customer changes it to a new, unique, and stronger one.
Another example is utilizing authentication systems like MFA (multi-factor authentication). This ensures the accounts can be only accessed by legitimate customers.
Employee Training
Account takeover attacks may not always target customers. They can target employees’ accounts, which in turn can lead to even bigger problems. Data breaching, to be exact.
To avoid that, financial services need to train employees by enforcing long and complex passwords on their accounts. This password must be easy to remember but hard to be guessed.
Customer Education
Last but not least, customers need to be educated on how to prevent their account from being taken. For example, ignore mails and calls that demand they share their login credentials or click suspicious files.
Preventing Account Takeover with Keypaz’s Device Intelligence Solution
The best account takeover protection tools, such as Keypaz’s device intelligence, can also help financial services to secure their customers. This fancy real-time protection helps combat account stealers by:
- Detecting unusual login behavior due to the usage of VPNs, fake proxies, and synthetic identity theft.
- Detecting tools used for fraud, like botnets and emulators.
- Prevent an account compromise as early as possible by leveraging AI and data training.
- Constantly learning fraudsters’ evolving tactics, giving financial services an upper hand.
Not only that, Keypaz’s device intelligence can be easily customized to suit any kind of business’ needs. With Keypaz’s device intelligence, account takeover prevention is not just a simple security measure but rather a complete protection to everyone.