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.
ASUS has released new firmware to patch a critical authentication bypass security flaw impacting several DSL series router models. [...]
Cybersecurity researchers are sounding the alert about an authentication bypass vulnerability in Fortinet Fortiweb WAF that could allow an attacker to take over admin accounts and completely compromise a device
A Fortinet FortiWeb path traversal vulnerability is being actively exploited to create new administrative users on exposed devices without requiring authentication [...]
Flaw Enabled Remote Code Execution, Say AWS ResearchersResearchers from AWS said they spotted a hacking campaign taking advantage of a zero-day vulnerability in Cisco network access control software before the routing giant patched it earlier this year. The flaw let attackers perform pre-authentication remote code execution.
Microsoft announced that passwordless authentication is now easier on Windows 11 through native support for third-party passkey managers, the first ones supported being 1Password and Bitwarden. [...]
Active Directory remains the authentication backbone for over 90% of Fortune 1000 companies. AD's importance has grown as companies adopt hybrid and cloud infrastructure, but so has its complexity. Every application, user, and device traces back to AD for authentication and authorization, making it the ultimate target. For attackers, it represents the holy grail: compromise Active
Steve Lenderman of isolved on Cross-Device Challenges, User Adoption StrategiesSteve Lenderman, head of fraud prevention at isolved, discusses the shift to passwordless authentication, addressing adoption challenges across multiple devices, the link between cybersecurity and fraud prevention, and how behavioral analytics will shape identity verification in 2026 and beyond.
Google's Mandiant Threat Defense on Monday said it discovered n-day exploitation of a now-patched security flaw in Gladinet's Triofox file-sharing and remote access platform