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.
Bipartisan Bill Would Mandate Multifactor Authentication, Pen TestingProposed legislation that's been kicking around Congress for the last few years that aims to help bolster cybersecurity of the healthcare sector cleared a critical hurdle on Thursday. But will the bill gain enough momentum to pass the full Senate, the House and be signed into law?
A newly disclosed maximum-severity security flaw in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller (formerly vSmart) and Catalyst SD-WAN Manager (formerly vManage) has come under active exploitation in the wild as part of malicious activity that dates back to 2023
Lawsuit Claims SonicWall Cloud Backup Flaw Led to Ransomware Attack Against MarquisMarquis Software Solutions has sued SonicWall alleging a cloud backup data breach exposed firewall configuration files, including credentials and multifactor authentication scratch codes. The firm says the breach enabled an August 2025 ransomware attack and triggered dozens of class action lawsuits.
Cisco is warning that a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, tracked as CVE-2026-20127, was actively exploited in zero-day attacks that allowed remote attackers to compromise controllers and add malicious rogue peers to targeted networks. [...]
Stolen tokens and compromised devices let attackers reuse trust without breaking authentication. Specops Software explains why identity alone isn't enough and how continuous device verification strengthens Zero Trust. [...]