Stay secure online with the latest on authentication techniques, best practices, and industry updates at the forefront of information security.
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Background for this topic.
Authentication confirms the identity of users or systems before granting access to resources, typically using factors like passwords (knowledge), hardware tokens (possession), or biometrics (inherence). It establishes trust boundaries that prevent unauthorized entities from impersonating legitimate users or devices within networks and applications.
Weak authentication enables attackers to perform account takeover, privilege escalation, or lateral movement by exploiting stolen credentials, phishing, or replay attacks. Deploying multi-factor authentication (MFA) with independent factors significantly reduces these risks. Secure credential storage, regular rotation, and monitoring authentication logs for anomalies are critical defenses to detect and block unauthorized access attempts early in the attack chain.
Microsoft is investigating an ongoing incident that is causing users to experience errors with some Microsoft 365 authentication features. [...]
Trend Micro has released security updates to address multiple critical-severity remote code execution and authentication bypass vulnerabilities that impact its Apex Central and Endpoint Encryption (TMEE) PolicyServer products. [...]
Microsoft has fixed a known issue causing authentication problems on Windows Server domain controllers after installing the April 2025 security updates. [...]