Account takeover prevention

Account takeover (ATO) attacks can result in a number of negative outcomes, including malware installation, data exfiltration, fraudulent transactions or money transfers, or lateral movement to gain additional access within a secure network.

Users should contact their account provider, institution, or employer to alert them of the compromise. They should update the credentials (e.g. password and MFA method) associated with the account, as well as for all their other accounts, as attackers can use one set of credentials to try to gain access to other accounts.

Organizations affected by ATO should immediately revoke access for the affected account, then look for indicators of compromise (IoC) to see if other accounts or parts of the network have also been impacted due to lateral movement. Rotating credentials and keys for all internal systems is advisable as well. They may want to contact law enforcement if necessary.

A number of strategies can help protect against account takeover, including the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) with hard keys, using phishing protection, managing bot activity, and enforcing strong password policies.

Account takeover detection is the process of recognizing when account takeover (ATO) has occurred. A number of telltale signs may indicate an ATO attack has taken place, including suspicious IP addresses accessing an account, unknown devices requesting access, and unusual activity originating from legitimate user accounts.

Account takeover is one of the most common cyber attacks. As one of the most profitable kinds of cyber attacks, malicious parties are highly motivated to carry out ATO attacks. Studies have found that almost a quarter of American adults have been ATO victims.