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.
Apple adds API that will enable sharing of passkeys across platforms, and Google offers passkey authentication in beta for Google Workspace and Google Cloud.
Google's blue tick proves untrustworthy Google says it has fixed a flaw that allowed a scammer to impersonate delivery service UPS on Gmail, after the data-hoarding web behemoth labeled the phony email as authentic.…