Account takeover fraud is not exactly a new development, yet it is becoming more problematic as time progresses. This form of fraud is spiking in frequency, making life difficult for businesses, clients, and others. Our IT support team can help you prevent this form of fraud and keep your business operating like a well-oiled machine.
The Basics of Account Takeover Fraud
Account takeovers involve cyber thieves obtaining illegal access to an individual’s e-commerce or financial login credentials. This unauthorized access is typically made through a bot attack. The attack sets the stage for one or several fraudulent transactions to take place. Sadly, account takeovers provide a window of opportunity for the thief to rack up charges before the victim realizes what has happened. Our IT support team is here to help prevent such an outcome. It is important to keep in mind that account takeover fraud is an internet-based form of identity theft. The two have considerable overlap. Prepare accordingly, and you stand a chance to avoid infiltration and numerous problems down the line.
How Account Takeover Fraud Occurs
Account takeover occurs when vulnerabilities are exploited in user accounts and entire networks. Hackers have several different ways to accomplish this nefarious feat. The most common ways to perform account fraud takeover are credential suffering, credential cracking, man in the middle attacks, social engineering, and replay attacks. Malware attacks involve infecting a device to pilfer login credentials. Replay attacks involve seizing HTTP information transmitted from the network to financial institutions and manipulating that data.
If you notice your computer has odd error messages, your system performance is reduced, there are pop-ups or strange emails are sent from your account, your network has likely been infected with malware.
How to Prevent Account Takeover Fraud
Our IT support team will help train your employees on all cybersecurity matters. As an example, our guidance can help your employees develop and implement the best password practices. Even using a password management tool will help if your team has multiple accounts on several platforms. Two-factor authentication adds another security layer for logging into user accounts. This approach requires entering the password and providing a second piece of information in order to log in.
The use of software updates/patches will help eliminate potential liabilities. It is also in your interest to add DNS filtering at endpoints. Even if your passwords are lengthy and complex, there is the potential for fraudsters to wreak havoc if your systems are not safeguarded at the Domain Name System level. DNS security including modules that pinpoint threats will help identify, prevent, and thwart such digital attacks.
Our IT support team can lend invaluable assistance in the context of digital security and technology as a whole. Get in touch with us at Vitalpoints to find out more about our services.