Account Takeover Detection

Account takeover attacks (ATOs) are a common type of fraud — and unfortunately, they can be difficult to detect. Part of the reason for this is that account takeovers can be accomplished in more than one way. Cybercriminals use various methods to gain entry to victim’s accounts: phishing, credential stuffing, cookie theft, and exploiting leaked data are all examples of methods used to gain unauthorized access to user accounts and exploit them for financial gain or other malicious purposes. Threat intelligence is a key tool when it comes to detecting and preventing account takeover attacks.

How Flare Helps with Account Takeover Detection

How can threat intelligence empower your team to detect account takeovers?

Knowledge is power. Strong threat intelligence combined with continuous monitoring can help your organization stay up-to-date on the latest account takeover tactics and techniques, as well as the most common signs of an account takeover. This information can be used to enhance monitoring efforts and more effectively identify potential threats and ATOs.

Flare Account and Session Takeover directly addresses this challenge by maintaining an industry-leading dataset of leaked credentials and session cookies. With API integration, organizations gain the capability to revoke active sessions, thwart fraudulent attempts, and enhance user security. This plays a pivotal role in countering account takeovers by focusing on the vulnerabilities posed by stolen cookie sessions or credentials, which cybercriminals exploit with increasing frequency.

Why do security teams use Flare for account takeover detection?

Driven by the adoption of multifactor authentication (MFA), cyber criminals are increasingly targeting session cookies and tokens rather than stealing passwords. Flare addresses this threat by maintaining a repository of active session cookies. Through API access, your organization can leverage this data to revoke compromised sessions or request password confirmation to mitigate fraudulent activity. By tackling stolen cookie sessions, Flare offers a proactive solution to detecting and preventing account takeovers.

What are the key benefits of Flare’s threat intelligence management platform?

Continuous monitoring of your assets: Flare’s platform continuously monitors the dark and clear web as well as prominent threat actor communities, scanning for leaked data and assets. This continuous monitoring gives your team 24/7 coverage, so you will know as sensitive information appears in an unauthorized location.
A proactive security stance: By actively seeking out leaks and eavesdropping on hacker chatter, your team can catch compromises early, giving leadership and your team an opportunity to take steps to protect your data, systems, and networks.
Unmatched data collection: Flare uses billions of data points to provide your team with information about your organization’s security stance, relevant threats, and the movement of threat actors between platforms.
Transparency: Flare lists every source so you can tell decision-makers exactly where every piece of threat intelligence data is coming from.

An Overview of Account Takeover Detection

What is account takeover fraud?

Account takeover fraud is a cyber attack in which an unauthorized person gains access to a victim’s accounts, such as a bank account, social media account, corporate login, or any other legitimate personal or business account. This stolen access allows the threat actor to make changes, steal assets, and do damage to the individual or an organization.

How do threat actors take over accounts?

Criminals are able to take over accounts using several methods:

Credential stuffing: In this sort of attack, criminals use automated tools to try previously leaked credentials to log into various online services. Attackers often rely on data breaches and leaks to obtain large lists of credentials, hoping that users have reused their passwords across multiple platforms.
Spear-phishing: Spear-phishing attacks attempt to trick users into revealing login credentials by impersonating a legitimate entity, such as a bank, online service, or even an employer.
Cookie theft: In a cookie hijacking attack, threat actors use malware to steal a session cookie rather than a password in order to take over a user’s legitimate session or account bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Social engineering: Social engineering attacks are essentially confidence schemes that attempt to use psychology to trick victims. They can take several forms, including phone calls, text messages, or in-person encounters. By posing as a trusted individual or organization, attackers try to persuade victims to provide login details.
Password spraying: In a password spraying attack, attackers try a small number of commonly used passwords against multiple accounts within an organization. This approach allows cybercriminals to bypass account lockout policies and reduces the likelihood of detection compared to brute force attacks, which involve trying many different password combinations for a single account.
Malware: Malware, such as keyloggers, can also be used to capture a user’s login credentials. Keyloggers record keystrokes made on a user’s device, allowing cybercriminals to obtain usernames and passwords when users log in to their accounts.

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Why is Account Takeover Detection Especially Important at the Moment?

What is the impact of an account takeover?

Account takeovers have an impact on both the individual users and an organization as a whole:

Financial cost: Threat actors often launch account takeovers specifically to steal financial resources.
Loss of proprietary or sensitive data: Attackers often steal and take advantage of sensitive data, including personal information, intellectual property, and trade secrets. Attackers can use this data for various malicious purposes, such as identity theft, industrial espionage, or future targeted attacks against the organization or its users.
Reputational loss: Falling victim to an attack can severely damage the reputation of an organization. Customers may lose trust in the company’s ability to protect their data and negative press may impact the public perception of a company.
Legal consequences and costs: Organizations that fail to protect user data may face legal and regulatory penalties. Data breach notification laws require companies to inform affected users and, in some cases, government agencies about security incidents. Additionally, organizations may be held liable for damages resulting from inadequate security measures, leading to potential lawsuits and fines.

How can account takeovers be prevented?

Implementing security defense mechanisms such as:

Account enumeration prevention
Behavioral detection (for example, logging out the user if there’s a country change detected in its IP address)
Re-request password for sensitive actions like changing a password