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.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added two security flaws impacting Hikvision and Rockwell Automation products to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation
The phishing-as-a-service platform was popular among cyber threat actors because of its ability to bypass multifactor authentication defenses.
Organizations typically roll out multi-factor authentication (MFA) and assume stolen passwords are no longer enough to access systems. In Windows environments, that assumption is often wrong. Attackers still compromise networks every day using valid credentials. The issue is not MFA itself, but coverage. Enforced through an identity provider (IdP) such as Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or
Bitwarden announced support for logging into Windows 11 devices using passkeys stored in the manager's vault, enabling phishing-resistant authentication. [...]
A maximum severity vulnerability in the FreeScout helpdesk platform allows hackers to achieve remote code execution without any user interaction or authentication. [...]
Juniper Tells Customers to Tune Their FirewallA critical vulnerability in Juniper Networks' primary operating system could give threat actors root level privileges to execute code on Juniper’s PTX Series routers. Successful exploitation would give attackers full command and control over devices without the need for authentication.
Hackers are abusing the legitimate OAuth redirection mechanism to bypass phishing protections in email and browsers to take users to malicious pages. [...]
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new phishing suite called Starkiller that proxies legitimate login pages to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) protections
Microsoft on Monday warned of phishing campaigns that employ phishing emails and OAuth URL redirection mechanisms to bypass conventional phishing defenses implemented in email and browsers
Crims hope for payday from malicious payloads rather than stealing access tokens Microsoft has warned organizations about ongoing OAuth abuse scams that use phishing emails and URL redirects to infect victims' machines with malware and take over their devices.…