Account Takeover Fraud

Account takeover fraud gives bad actors the ability to bypass access controls, evade detection tools, and interact with sensitive resources, making it one of the most devastating threats in the wild. Unfortunately, account takeover fraud is also escalating, both in frequency and severity, as hackers find new and novel ways to orchestrate this time-tested exploit. This form of fraud may get worse, but security teams can strengthen their defenses to better prepare.

Overview of Account Takeover Fraud

What is account takeover fraud?

Account takeover fraud happens when a bad actor gains access to a legitimate account and uses the privileges and/or identity attached to that account for malicious purposes. For example, hackers could take over a bank account to transfer money to their own accounts, or use someone’s email to request money or information from a contact. Hackers have many tactics they can use to take over accounts, and they can weaponize that access for many purposes, making this one of the hardest cyber threats to overcome.

What are the consequences of account takeover fraud?

Account takeover fraud gives cyber criminals the cover of being a legitimate user, so not only do they have elevated privileges, they are subject to fewer security controls. Much like having a stolen key, taking over an account provides direct, unchallenged access to sensitive assets. It can also be a launchpad for much larger attacks if hackers use their stolen accounts to lay the groundwork without arousing suspicion. An increasing number of threats utilize account takeover fraud at some point in the attack chain because it confers such an advantage to the attackers. As such, reducing account takeovers has widespread benefits to cybersecurity.

How does account takeover fraud start?

Despite access controls, accounts can be breached in multiple ways:

Infostealers – Malware that steals cookies or records keystrokes while lurking quietly in the background. Hackers will either use the information themselves or sell it to the highest bidder.
Social Engineering – Hacker’s pose as someone legitimate and trick victims into giving up their account login or other sensitive information by exploiting their instincts and impulses.
Cookie Hijacking – Stealing cookies through packet sniffing or man-in-the-middle attacks gives hackers the same access to accounts as stolen passwords without the barriers posed by multi-factor authentication.
Credential Stuffing – Plugging known or common passwords into a login is one way to crack open accounts. Another is to use a small number of passwords on multiple accounts to avoid account lockout measures.

How do you mitigate account takeover fraud?

Good password hygiene goes a long way. Pick strong passwords, change them regularly, and require MFA for all logins. Limit the number of login attempts and activate alerts for account changes. Finally, look for stolen credentials that appear on the internet for sale, because account takeover mitigation and cookie hijacking prevention are not sustainable without monitoring for what’s at risk.

Why is Account Takeover Fraud a Rising Threat?

Why are more hackers using account takeover fraud?

Two factors are driving an uptick in account takeover attacks that utilize stolen credentials and cookies. The first is increasing security controls and more sophisticated defensive tools making it harder for hackers to reach their intended target. Account takeover offers an easy bypass and effective disguise. Second, accounts are invaluable gateways to sensitive information and privileged access, making them a high-value target that hackers will always have in their sites. Both these signs suggest that takeovers will not slow down anytime soon.

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How does more account takeover fraud affect cybersecurity?

Companies spend large amounts of time, money, and energy on cybersecurity, yet it only takes one instance of account takeover fraud to make all those protections irrelevant. When criminals use stolen credentials or cookies to access accounts, it does not set off alarm bells, so they can often dwell inside the account for extended periods, doing more damage over time. Security teams have limited ability to detect compromised accounts. In response they must put stronger identity and access controls in place that affect the user experience for everyone. The rise of zero trust cybersecurity, where a user’s identity must be verified frequently and carefully, has partly been promoted by the challenge of account takeover fraud.

Can account takeover fraud be eradicated?

Account takeover fraud has been a problem for as long as digital accounts have existed, and will likely remain a common and potent cyber threat long into the future. Time has shown that accounts are extremely hard to secure consistently at scale. Furthermore, they will always be a top target for cyber attacks. Rather than assuming that accounts are secure or that fraud is a distant threat, companies must be proactive about account takeover prevention by monitoring for exposures and neutralizing risks. Otherwise, account takeovers are almost inevitable.

How Flare Prevents Account Takeover Fraud

How can Flare detect account takeover fraud?

One common way bad actors takeover accounts is by buying or finding stolen credentials and session cookies, which are widely available on the dark web. Flare searches the entire internet, including the dark and clear web plus well-known hacker communities, to maintain the largest dataset of leaked information available anywhere for account takeover detection. Flare users can search this data for their own credentials to immediately understand if, where, and how they’re exposed to account takeover fraud, combined with what measures to take to lower that risk. Users also receive alerts when Flare discovers exposures as part of a scheduled sweep.

How can Flare shut down account takeover fraud?

The constant cadence of data breaches means that huge amounts of credentials and cookies are now exposed online, with more appearing all the time. The challenge of finding them all is followed by the equal or greater challenge of revoking them quickly and comprehensively. API integration allows Flare users to revoke exposed cookies or credentials within the interface in seconds, making it easy to handle this responsibility at scale with speed. Once accounts are hijacked it’s already too late. Flare delivers the visibility and control to get exposures off the internet before hackers can misuse them to break into accounts.

What are the benefits of using Flare to fight account takeover fraud?

Automated Solution – Security teams can spend time on something else besides finding and fixing exposed assets thanks to automation that makes the work instant and effortless.
Non-Stop Monitoring – With Flare searching for exposed credentials and cookies 24/7/265, across the whole internet, teams know immediately when a new exposure appears.
Peerless Data – Security professionals have access to the largest collection of threat intelligence and exposed credentials available anywhere, giving them the accurate and extensive perspective they need to address ALL exposures.
Proactive Security – Being proactive about stopping account takeover fraud results in fewer successful attacks, smaller losses, less cyber risk, and more cyber resilience.