An account takeover attack is a type of identity theft that occurs when a cybercriminal gains access to your online account and changes your login credentials to lock you out. Once you can no longer log in, a cybercriminal will use your identity to steal private information or even scam others. You can prevent account takeover attacks by using strong passwords, enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and investing in dark web monitoring. According to a recent report, more than 77 million adults have experienced account takeovers, with social media accounts being the most commonly compromised.

Read on to discover why account takeovers are so dangerous and how you can protect yourself against them, as an individual or an organization.

Why are account takeovers so dangerous?

Account takeovers are very dangerous for individuals and organizations because they can lead to:

If a cybercriminal gains access to an online account containing personal or customer information, they can use what they find to log into other accounts or sell the information to other cybercriminals on the dark web. Because an account takeover locks the victim out of their account, it makes it difficult for an individual or business to regain access, retrieve data, restore finances, and repair their reputation.

How individuals can prevent account takeovers

As an individual, you can protect your data and prevent your account from being taken over by following these tips.

Use strong passwords for every account

Create a strong and unique password for each of your online accounts. A strong password contains more than 16 characters and a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. The longer and more random a password is, the better your account is protected from cyber attacks. When creating a strong password, avoid using common words or phrases, personal information or consecutive numbers.

Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) when available

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an additional security measure that requires users to provide additional proof of identity beyond a username and password. When you enable MFA, you will be required to enter additional verification, such as a PIN, a code from an authenticator app, or your fingerprint. Enabling MFA makes it much harder for cybercriminals to access your accounts, because they not only need to know your username and password, but also an additional way to prove your identity — which only you should have access to.

Learn to recognize phishing attempts

Many account takeovers are the result of people falling for phishing attacks. Phishing occurs when a cybercriminal pretends to be a person or company that the victim knows is trying to trick the victim into sharing personal information. Most phishing attempts use urgent language, either to convince you to act quickly or to threaten you if you don’t follow instructions immediately. Phishing messages often contain spelling and grammatical errors, which you should be able to spot easily since most companies double-check emails before sending them. Check the sender’s email address to verify that the domain matches a reputable company before you believe the sender’s identity.

Never click on unsolicited links or attachments

If you ever receive an unsolicited email or text message with links or attachments, do not click on them or download them. Even if a message appears to be from a company you have an account with, go to the company’s official website or app instead and log in to your account that way. An unsolicited link or attachment could contain malware designed by a cybercriminal to steal your private data once it’s installed on your device.

You can check if a link is safe by hovering over the link, which will give you a preview of the URL, or by copying and pasting the link into a URL checker. Check if an email attachment is safe by checking the sender’s email address and using antivirus software to scan attachments.

Use a dark web monitoring tool

You can use a dark web monitoring tool to see if your personal information is on the dark web, a part of the internet where cybercriminals can buy and sell any information obtained through malicious activity. Some password managers, such as Keeper^®offer a dark web monitoring tool as an additional feature that allows you to scan the dark web for the login credentials you have stored in your vault.

Try Keeper’s free dark web scan tool to check if your credentials are exposed on the dark web.

How Organizations Can Prevent Account Takeovers

There are several ways you and your organization can prevent account takeovers from compromising data and damaging your company’s reputation.

Use a password manager for your business

If your organization isn’t already using an enterprise password manager, now’s the time to start. An enterprise password manager allows your employees to securely manage and store their passwords in a digital vault. By requiring employees to use a password manager within your organization, you ensure that they are following best password practices. An enterprise password manager also allows employees to securely share encrypted passwords for secure collaboration. This ensures that passwords aren’t intercepted by unauthorized users and that credentials remain safe in each employee’s encrypted digital vault. Password managers can also help enforce MFA by storing MFA codes in a record and automatically filling them in when a user is required to enter an MFA code on a website or account. Enterprise password managers make storing and sharing passwords safe and easy for every employee and organization.

Invest in dark web monitoring

Your organization should invest in dark web monitoring to prevent account takeovers. The best dark web monitoring tool your organization can use is Keeper Security’s BreachWatch^®. It is an add-on feature of Keeper Password Manager that constantly monitors the dark web to see if any records stored in employee vaults match those on the dark web. If BreachWatch detects a match, the employee is immediately notified so they can change the breached password and update it directly in their password manager.

Enter your email address into Keeper’s dark web scanner to help companies see if you and your employees are vulnerable on the dark web.

Limit the number of login attempts

Set a limit on the number of login attempts someone is allowed to make to gain access to their account. Brute force attacks occur when a cybercriminal guesses login credentials through trial and error, so if someone is given unlimited login attempts, they could eventually gain access to an employee’s account. Since brute force attacks rely on multiple login attempts, limiting the number of attempts to three or four gives employees enough to try in case they make a typo, but prevents potential cybercriminals from gaining access to an account.

Setting up a web application firewall (WAF)

Your organization can implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF), which helps filter traffic between a web application and the internet. By using a WAF, your organization protects all web applications from potential cyberattacks, including account takeovers. WAFs identify and block requests from unauthorized traffic and can even detect when cybercriminal bots are attempting to infiltrate your accounts.

Implementing Zero Trust

Zero trust is a security framework that assumes that every device and account can be compromised. To combat this, every user – human and machine – must constantly verify their identity within an organization through multiple authentication processes. The three core principles of zero trust are to assume that breaches will occur, require everyone to verify their identity to access the organization’s network and data, and ensure that users have least privilege access. All employee devices used on an organization’s network must be registered and managed to track who has access.

A key aspect of zero-trust solutions is least-privilege access, which gives employees only the access they need to do their jobs, preventing a data breach from spreading. That way, if an employee’s account is compromised, the limited access won’t give a cybercriminal as much access to the rest of the organization. For example, if an employee whose account was compromised had access to not only marketing data, but also customer data, transactions, and social media accounts, the cybercriminal would have access to much more valuable data.

Informing employees about security awareness

Make your employees aware of potential security risks and threats by conducting phishing tests. These are simulated phishing emails sent throughout the company to see how employees respond. These tests can help you determine if your organization is prepared for phishing attacks or if employees need further training on security measures. By educating your employees about security threats, you protect yourself and your organization from future cyberattacks.

Stay protected from account takeovers with Keeper

Whether you are an individual or an organization, everyone needs protection from account takeovers and other cyberattacks. Keeper can protect you and your organization with our dark web monitoring tools and password manager.

Start a free trial of Keeper Password Manager for your personal and business accounts today.