MFA reduces account takeover by requiring another proof of identity, limiting damage from stolen passwords; protect fallback and recovery paths too.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
Background for this topic.
MFA requires a user to prove identity with at least two different factor types: something they know, have, or are. It limits account takeover when a password is exposed, but protection depends on the factors and their implementation; two passwords are not independent factors, and a one-time code delivered by SMS is generally weaker than a phishing-resistant credential.
Attackers may steal or relay one-time codes through phishing, trigger repeated push prompts to induce approval, exploit weak enrollment or account-recovery processes, or hijack an authenticated session after MFA succeeds. Prefer phishing-resistant methods such as FIDO2/WebAuthn security keys or platform credentials for sensitive access, protect enrollment and recovery as strongly as login, restrict weaker fallbacks, and monitor unusual authentication activity. MFA reduces risk but does not replace endpoint, session, or privileged-access controls.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
Financial institutions are putting their clients at risk in the name of convenience.
One rule for the workers, another for execs
Who needs MFA when you've got EvilTokens? Hundreds of organizations have been compromised daily by a Microsoft device-code phishing campaign that uses AI and automation at nearly every stage of the attack chain to ultimately snoop through corporate email inboxes and steal financial data.…
Here's where you ought to spend your security billable hours budget this year Strengthen your MFA policies, double-down on anti-phishing training, and for Jobs' sake, patch all your vulns right away. The past year of intelligence collected by Cisco's Talos threat hunters suggests that attackers are moving faster to exploit vulns, and fooling more staff than ever into giving up their credentials. …
Crim used infostealer to get cloud credentials If you don't say "yes way" to MFA, the consequences can be disastrous. Sensitive data belonging to about 50 global enterprises is listed for sale – and, in some cases, has already been sold – on the dark web following a major infostealer campaign, with apparent victims including American utility engineering firm Pickett and Associates; Japan's homebuilding giant Sekisui House; and Spain's largest airline Iberia.…
Wanna know a secret? Whether you're logging into your bank, health insurance, or even your email, most services today do not live by passwords alone. Now commonplace, multifactor authentication (MFA) requires users to enter a second or third proof of identity. However, not all forms of MFA are created equal, and the one-time passwords orgs send to your phone have holes so big you could drive a truck through them.…
PLUS: US court grounds China’s DJI; India requires 2FA for most payments; Great Firewall busters launch VPN; and more! Asia In Brief Over 600 e-government services operated by South Korea’s government are offline after a datacenter fire disrupted operations.…
Hundreds of compromised packages pulled as registry shifts to 2FA and trusted publishing GitHub, which owns the npm registry for JavaScript packages, says it is tightening security in response to recent attacks.…
Cautionary tale from the recent SonicWall attacks Failing to encrypt sensitive data leaves you wide open to attack. During the recent SonicWall attack spree, intruders bypassed multi-factor authentication (MFA) in at least one case, because a user's recovery codes were left sitting in a plaintext file on their desktop.…
Okta uncovers new phishing-as-a-service operation with 'multiple entities' falling victim Multiple attackers using a new phishing service dubbed VoidProxy to target organizations' Microsoft and Google accounts have successfully stolen users' credentials, multi-factor authentication codes, and session tokens in real time, according to security researchers.…
Patch, turn on MFA, and restrict access to trusted networks…or else Affiliates of the Akira ransomware gang are again exploiting a critical SonicWall vulnerability abused last summer, after a suspected zero-day flaw actually turned out to be related to a year-old bug.…
Busy lawyers on hold for five hours as staff handhold users into deploying the security measure US courts have warned of delays as PACER, the system for accessing court documents, struggles to support users enrolling in its mandatory MFA program.…
PLUS: Microsoft ends no-MFA Azure access; WorkDay attack diverts payments; FreePBX warns of CVSS 10 flaw; and more Infosec In brief A flaw in Meta's WhatsApp app “may have been exploited in a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users.”…
Bypassing MFA and deploying ransomware…sounds like something that rhymes with 'schmero-day' SonicWall on Monday confirmed that it's investigating a rash of ransomware activity targeting its firewall devices, following multiple reports of a zero-day bug under active exploit in its VPNs.…
PLUS: Slow MFA rollout costs Canucks $5m; Lawmakers ponder Stingray ban; MSFT tightens Teams; And more! Infosec In Brief North Korea’s Lazarus Group has changed tactics and is now creating malware-laden open source software.…
If a credential is worth protecting, it's worth protecting well. Sponsored feature What do flossing and multi-factor authentication (MFA) have in common? Each is highly beneficial, yet far too few people do them consistently. MFA helps protect organizations from credential-based attacks, but according to the Cyber Readiness Institute, only 35% of businesses globally bother with it.…
Plus adds a ton more security capabilities for cloud customers at re:Inforce Amazon Web Services hit a major multi-factor authentication milestone, achieving 100 percent MFA enforcement for root users across all types of AWS accounts.…
No MFA? No problem – as long as you show you’ve learned your lesson The UK's data protection overlord is not going to pursue any further investigation into the British Library's 2023 ransomware attack.…
Who knew social media stars had a role to play in building national cyber resilience? The world's biggest brands have benefited from influencer marketing for years – now the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has hopped on the bandwagon to preach two-factor authentication (2FA) to the masses.…
Everyone knew texted OTPs were a dud back in 2016 Google has confirmed it will phase out the use of SMS text messages for multi-factor authentication in favor of more secure technologies.…