What Is Account Takeover Fraud? How Can You Prevent These Hacks?
You receive a message from a friend on WhatsApp asking you to send them money for something urgent with a promise to refund you later. They probably don’t make such requests often, so you transfer the money immediately.
You later discover that your friend didn’t send the message. An intruder hacked their account and accessed their contacts. Just like you, other people responded to the fraudulent message. This is one of the many scenarios of account takeover fraud. It doesn’t affect just you but also your loved ones.
What Is Account Takeover Fraud?
Account takeover fraud is when an intruder retrieves your login details, gains unauthorized access to your account, and performs fraudulent activities. Sometimes, they do this in the background while you are still on the account. They can also lock you out of the account and take full control.
For instance, a cybercriminal can retrieve data from a social network while you still have access to it. On the other hand, they may lock you out and post content, impersonating you.
Hackers plan most account takeover frauds over time. They target people and institutions with high-value information. When they successfully hack the accounts, they have high returns from the data. If the cybercriminals make demands, the victims will be eager to cooperate because they have so much to lose.
How Does Account Takeover Fraud Work?
Just like most cybercrimes, account takeover fraud begins with threat actors collecting your personal information. They target accounts in specific areas such as social media, online banking, email, and e-commerce. Having established the scope of their attacks, they strike with various technical and non-technical methods.
Collect Your Data With Phishing
Phishing is when a crybercriminalmakes you reveal your personal information or sensitive datato them. They engage you directly and manipulate you.
Phishing thrives on psychology. The intruder sends you false messages with a believable story. They claim to be a legitimate person or organization that you could trust.
The content could be an email from your bank informing you that your account has been compromised. They instruct you to click on a link in the message to block your account. When you click the link, a new page opens with a form. You enter your banking information requested to block your account. They use the information you provided to withdraw money from your bank account.
Hack Your Account With Brute Force
Some cybercriminals don’t have the patience to deploy phishing attacks which require your cooperation. They use techniques like brute force attacks to hack your account without involving you. In this case, theyguess multiple usernames and passwords, hoping to find some matches.
Brute force attacks are successful due to a general unhealthy password culture. The actor tries hundreds of usernames and passwords until they get lucky enough to find the correct combinations. Simple passwords are the first targets. Creating complex passwords isn’t everyone’s forte—some people take the easy route by using common names and numbers like dates of birth.
Exploit Reused Passwords With Credential Stuffing
Credential stuffing is similar to brute force attacks as it also thrives on passwords. But unlike brute force where the hacker is on a guessing spree, credential stuffing means they use valid passwords stolen from other platforms tohack accounts on a different application.
People sell stolen login credentials on the dark web, a marketplace for cybercriminals. The hacker could buy some valid details on Facebook, for instance, and then try them on Twitter.
Threat actors use bots for credential stuffing. They work with lots of user data to increase their success rate. Entering this information manually is stressful and time-consuming. But with bots, it’s faster and yields better results.
4 Ways to Prevent Account Takeover Fraud
If you are a victim of account takeover fraud, you could suffer huge financial and reputational losses. Here are some security measures to prevent it.
1. Verify Logins With Multi-Factor Authentication
Hackers can figure out your usernames and passwords, so you need to add more security layers to your login process. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) demands that users verify their identity through several mediums they previously registered or consented to.One-Time Passwords (OTPs), security questions, and scanning authentication codes are some common forms of MFA.
It’s not enough for intruders to figure out your login credentials. They must provide the information the system sent to your connected devices, answer your security questions, or scan the correct authentication code. If they fail any of these authentications, they can’t gain access.
2. Monitor Traffic in Real-Time
Account takeover fraud doesn’t happen suddenly; actors plan their way into your account. Take brute force attacks, for instance. Intruders likely won’t find the right username and password combination on their first few attempts. They try multiple times before hitting the jackpot. If you had network visibility, you would detect unusual activities and stop them.
Monitoring your traffic in real-time keeps you in the loop of all activities. But doing so manually isn’t very effective. Adopt threat monitoring tools with artificial intelligence to flag malicious traffic. They notify you about any threats and secure your network.
3. Update Apps Regularly
Cybersecurity is a collective effort. Software developers and providers play their part by continuously improving the security of their applications. They enhance previous features to withstand emerging threats and vulnerabilities. But their efforts are useless if you don’t modify your tools.
Updating your systems allows you to access the latest security features software providers offer. They prioritize access controls, raising the defenses of their systems against unauthorized users. A software provider may introduce encryption to its security arsenal, so intruders can’t view your data, but you won’t benefit from this feature if you don’t update your software.
4. Use a Password Manager for Increased Security
Weak passwords encourage brute force attacks, credential stuffing, and other login-related attacks. If you struggle with creating and remembering strong passwords,get a password manager. It’ll help you generate complex passwords and store them in a secure location.
Password fatigue is a cybersecurity concern that hinders you from managing your logins effectively. A reliable password manager creates multiple unique passwords and offers storage, so you don’t have to memorize them. The advanced ones sync your passwords to your device for easy browsing logins too.
Your Personal Information Is Key in Account Takeover Fraud
Anyone can be a victim of account takeover fraud. Cybercriminals leverage the slightest vulnerabilities on your account to pull it off. Securing your personal information and login credentials reduces the chances of it happening. That seemingly legitimate email may be from an intruder. Double-check all messages asking for your information or requesting you to take any action.
Having a crook create a fake account in your name can be just as scary as having your identity stolen.
The key is not to spook your friends with over-the-top shenanigans.
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