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 NSA and FBI warned that the APT43 North Korea-linked hacking group exploits weak email Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) policies to mask spearphishing attacks. [...]
Threat actor dropped in to Dropbox Sign production environment and accessed emails, passwords, and other PII, along with APIs, OAuth, and MFA info.
Attackers accessed emails, usernames, phone numbers, hashed passwords and authentication information
All Dropbox Sign Users' Emails Stolen, Plus Some MFA and OAuth Tokens, API KeysDropbox said hackers breached its infrastructure and stole swaths of customer data for its legally binding electronic signature service, Dropbox Sign, including names, emails, hashed passwords and authentication tokens. The company has begun forcing password resets and API key rotation.
A new malware called Cuttlefish is targeting small office and home office (SOHO) routers with the goal of stealthily monitoring all traffic through the devices and gather authentication data from HTTP GET and POST requests
The breach was carried out with stolen Citrix credentials for an account that lacked multifactor authentication. Attackers went undetected for days, and Change's backup strategy failed.
Cloud storage firm DropBox says hackers breached production systems for its DropBox Sign eSignature platform and gained access to authentication tokens, MFA keys, hashed passwords, and customer information. [...]
Microsoft has confirmed customer reports of NTLM authentication failures and high load after installing last month's Windows Server security updates. [...]
A new malware named 'Cuttlefish' has been spotted infecting enterprise-grade and small office/home office (SOHO) routers to monitor data that passes through them and steal authentication information. [...]
Testifies that Citrix authentication snafu has cost the health giant dearly UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty will tell US lawmakers Wednesday the cyber-criminals who hit Change Healthcare with ransomware used stolen credentials to remotely access a Citrix portal that didn't have multi-factor authentication enabled.…
UnitedHealth confirms that Change Healthcare's network was breached by the BlackCat ransomware gang, who used stolen credentials to log into the company's Citrix remote access service, which did not have multi-factor authentication enabled. [...]