Identity theft and account takeover: attacks and protective measures
Account Takeover attacks: credential stuffing, password spraying, SIM swapping, MFA bypass. Protections via Conditional Access and FIDO2.
Summary: Account takeover (ATO) refers to the unauthorized takeover of user accounts by attackers. Attack vectors: credential stuffing (leaked passwords), brute force, phishing/MFA bypass, session hijacking, password reset vulnerabilities, and SIM swapping. ATO is the starting point for fraud, data breaches, and privilege escalation. Detection: impossible travel, device fingerprinting anomalies, velocity checks.
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About the Author
M.Sc. in Internet Security (if(is), Westfälische Hochschule). COO and authorized officer (Prokurist) with expertise in information security consulting and security awareness. Junior professor (Nachwuchsprofessur) for Cyber Security at FOM Hochschule, CISO lecturer at isits AG and doctoral candidate at the Graduierteninstitut NRW.
11 Publikationen
- Understanding Regional Filter Lists: Efficacy and Impact (2025)
- Privacy from 5 PM to 6 AM: Tracking and Transparency Mechanisms in the HbbTV Ecosystem (2025)
- A Platform for Physiological and Behavioral Security (2025)
- Different Seas, Different Phishes - Large-Scale Analysis of Phishing Simulations Across Different Industries (2025)
- Exploring the Effects of Cybersecurity Awareness and Decision-Making Under Risk (2024)
- Sharing is Caring: Towards Analyzing Attack Surfaces on Shared Hosting Providers (2024)
- On the Similarity of Web Measurements Under Different Experimental Setups (2023)
- People, Processes, Technology - The Cybersecurity Triad (2023)
- Social Media Scraper im Einsatz (2021)
- Digital Risk Management (DRM) (2020)
- New Work - Die Herausforderungen eines modernen ISMS (2024)
