Account Takeover: The Hidden Threat That’s Costing Financial Institutions Millions

Cybercriminals use prevent account takeover to steal money, spy on users or surreptitiously change accounts. They can then use this information to commit identity theft, add fake employees to payroll, or exfiltrate sensitive data.

Why You Need to Prevent It

In many cases, account takeover occurs when customers change their password or phone number online — and the financial institutions that handle these requests have little way of distinguishing them from genuine customer activity. These changes often occur a few times a day and require a holistic approach to identifying fraudsters in real time.

IPQS and Account Takeover Detection: How This Technology Can Help Keep Your Business Secure

One of the most common ways to prevent account takeover is to set a cap on login attempts and use device tracking or IP blocking to limit access to bots known to be associated with these attacks. Combining these methods with strong password hygiene will greatly reduce the risk of account takeover.

Protect Your Employees:

A common way for criminals to obtain credentials is by phishing victims with malware, email scams or other ploys. Training your employees to recognize phishing messages and compromised accounts is essential to prevent these threats from getting into your digital infrastructure.

Require Multi-Factor Authentication:

Passwords are only part of the solution when it comes to preventing account takeover, so you also need to make sure that your users use strong passwords with additional security measures like two-factor authentication or biometrics. These methods are more difficult for hackers to crack and will dramatically lessen the likelihood of account takeover occurring.

Fire Systems Analytics & Automation

Technology plays a critical role in modern Pulse Fire Tech. From reducing unwanted false alarm call outs to managing and assigning contractor works to delivering the best possible service to customers, there are many ways that fire protection businesses can automate their processes.

Aside from being able to detect flames, heat and smoke, fire detection systems also incorporate environmental information. This allows firefighters to respond much faster, potentially limiting the amount of damage that occurs. For example, smoke sensors can be programmed to monitor for air contaminants like wind speed and humidity to determine if the smoke is coming from outside or within the building.

Pushing the Boundaries: Fire System Analytics and Automation Upgrades

Detectors may also be programmed to measure other environmental factors, such as carbon monoxide, which is often triggered by appliances that are turned on and off frequently. This is especially important in high hazard industries like aviation and fuel storage where flammable vapors pose a threat. Foam systems are often used in these areas to prevent vapors from spreading by creating a seal around the source.

Another key innovation in this field is Connected Life Safety Services (CLSS). This system integrates data connectivity with alarm transmission communicators to allow the fire systems service provider and facility manager to remotely access fire safety assets. CLSS can also be used for testing and inspections, allowing service technicians to create an instantly available customizable report before arriving on site. This drives labor efficiency, increases accuracy and improves customer satisfaction.

Many online users hide their true Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to protect their privacy or circumvent geographic restrictions. While most of these actions are legitimate, some bad actors use them to commit fraud or launch cyberattacks.

To mitigate the impact of these risks, businesses can leverage the IPinfo privacy detection API to identify connections coming from VPNs, proxies and Tor. By combining this information with other risk data points, companies can make nuanced decisions about how to handle this traffic.

Check if an IP is Using an Anonymizer or Masking Tool

Test if IP belongs to anonymizer service by masking a user’s IP address with their own, and directing the traffic to the target server. A simple proxy can simply mask the source IP, while a more advanced anonymizer like Tor, The Onion Router can hide your identity by routing the request through multiple servers in an encrypted fashion, so only the last node knows your real address.

Some people also use VPNs or other privacy tools to bypass geoblocking to access content that is otherwise not available in their region due to licensing restrictions. This kind of behavior is usually not indicative of criminal activity, but it is a good indication that an IP address may belong to an anonymizer or proxy service. This can then raise a flag for further investigation and trigger additional security measures or a higher fraud score.