Regardless of vital investments in superior applied sciences and worker coaching applications, credential and user-based assaults stay alarmingly prevalent, accounting for 50-80% of enterprise breaches[1],[2]. Whereas identity-based assaults proceed to dominate because the main reason behind safety incidents, the frequent method to identification safety threats remains to be risk discount, implementing layers of controls to scale back threat whereas accepting that some assaults will succeed. This technique depends on detection, response, and restoration capabilities to reduce injury after a breach has already occurred, nevertheless it doesn’t stop the opportunity of profitable assaults.
The excellent news? Lastly, there is a resolution that marks a real paradigm shift: with trendy authentication applied sciences, the whole elimination of identity-based threats is now inside attain. This groundbreaking development strikes us past the standard concentrate on threat discount, providing organizations a option to absolutely neutralize this essential risk vector. For the primary time, prevention is not only a purpose—it is a actuality, reworking the panorama of identification safety.
What are Identification-Based mostly Threats?
Identification-based threats, similar to phishing, stolen or compromised credentials, enterprise electronic mail compromise, and social engineering, stay essentially the most vital assault floor in enterprise environments, impacting 90% of organizations [3]. In line with IBM’s 2024 Value of a Information Breach Report, phishing, and stolen credentials are the 2 most prevalent assault vectors, ranked among the many most costly, with a mean breach price of $4.8 million. Attackers utilizing legitimate credentials can transfer freely inside methods, making this tactic extraordinarily helpful for risk actors.
The persistence of identity-based threats may be traced again to the basic flaws in conventional authentication mechanisms, which depend on shared secrets and techniques like passwords, PINs, and restoration questions. These shared secrets and techniques should not solely outdated but additionally inherently weak, making a fertile floor for attackers to use. Let’s break down the issue:
- Phishing Assaults: With the rise of AI instruments, attackers can simply craft extremely convincing traps, tricking customers into revealing their credentials by way of emails, faux web sites, and social media messages. Regardless of how complicated or distinctive a password is, as soon as the person is deceived, the attacker features entry.
- Verifier Impersonation: Attackers have turn into adept at impersonating trusted entities, similar to login portals or buyer assist. By mimicking these verifiers, they will intercept credentials with out the person ever realizing they have been compromised. This makes the theft not solely efficient but additionally invisible, bypassing many conventional defenses.
- Password Reset Flows: The processes designed to assist customers regain entry after forgetting or compromising a password have turn into main assault vectors. Attackers exploit social engineering ways, leveraging bits of knowledge gathered from social media or bought on the darkish internet to govern these workflows, bypass safety measures, and take management of accounts.
- Gadget Compromise: Even when superior mechanisms, similar to multi-factor authentication (MFA), are in place, the compromise of a trusted machine can undermine identification integrity. Malware or different malicious instruments on a person’s machine can intercept authentication codes or mimic trusted endpoints, rendering these safeguards ineffective.
Traits of an Entry Answer that Eliminates Identification-Based mostly Threats
Legacy authentication methods are ineffective at stopping identity-based assaults as a result of they depend on safety by way of obscurity. These methods rely on a mix of weak components, shared secrets and techniques, and human decision-making, all of that are vulnerable to exploitation.
The true elimination of identity-based threats requires an authentication structure that makes total lessons of assaults technically inconceivable. That is achieved by way of robust cryptographic controls, hardware-backed safety measures, and steady validation to make sure ongoing trustworthiness all through the authentication course of.
The next core traits outline an entry resolution designed to realize full elimination of identity-based threats.
Phishing-Resistant
Fashionable authentication architectures should be designed to eradicate the chance of credential theft by way of phishing assaults. To attain this, they need to embody:
- Elimination of Shared Secrets and techniques: Take away shared secrets and techniques like passwords, PINs, and restoration questions throughout the authentication course of.
- Cryptographic Binding: Bind credentials cryptographically to authenticated gadgets, making certain they can’t be reused elsewhere.
- Automated Authentication: Implement authentication flows that reduce or eradicate reliance on human selections, lowering alternatives for deception.
- {Hardware}-Backed Credential Storage: Retailer credentials securely inside {hardware}, making them proof against extraction or tampering.
- No Weak Fallbacks: Keep away from fallback mechanisms that depend on weaker authentication components, as these can reintroduce vulnerabilities.
By addressing these key areas, phishing-resistant architectures create a strong protection towards one of the crucial prevalent assault vectors.
Verifier Impersonation Resistance
Recognizing authentic hyperlinks is inherently difficult for customers, making it simple for attackers to use this weak point. To fight this, Past Identification authentication makes use of a Platform Authenticator that verifies the origin of entry requests. This method ensures that solely authentic requests are processed, successfully stopping assaults primarily based on mimicking authentic websites.
To totally resist verifier impersonation, entry options should incorporate:
- Robust Origin Binding: Guarantee all authentication requests are securely tied to their unique supply.
- Cryptographic Verifier Validation: Use cryptographic strategies to substantiate the identification of the verifier and block unauthorized imposters.
- Request Integrity: Forestall redirection or manipulation of authentication requests throughout transmission.
- Phishing-Resistant Processes: Eradicate verification mechanisms weak to phishing, similar to shared secrets and techniques or one-time codes.
By embedding these measures, organizations can neutralize the chance of attackers impersonating authentic authentication companies.
Gadget Safety Compliance
Authentication includes not solely verifying the person but additionally assessing the safety of their machine. Past Identification stands out as the one Entry Administration (AM) resolution in the marketplace that gives exact, fine-grained entry management by evaluating real-time machine threat each throughout authentication and constantly all through energetic classes.
A key advantage of a platform authenticator put in on the machine is its potential to ship verified impersonation resistance, making certain that attackers can not mimic authentic authentication companies. One other key profit is its potential to offer real-time posture and threat knowledge instantly from the machine, similar to whether or not the firewall is enabled, biometrics are energetic, disk encryption is in place, the assigned person is verified, and extra.
With the Past Identification Platform Authenticator, organizations can assure person identification by way of phishing-resistant authentication whereas concurrently imposing safety compliance on the gadgets requesting entry. This ensures that solely trusted customers working safe gadgets are granted entry to your surroundings.
Steady, Threat-Based mostly Entry Management
Authenticating the person and validating machine compliance on the level of entry is a vital first step, however what occurs if a person modifications their machine configurations? Even authentic customers can unknowingly create dangers by disabling the firewall, downloading malicious recordsdata, or putting in software program with recognized vulnerabilities. Steady analysis of each machine and person dangers is crucial to make sure that no exploitable machine turns into a gateway for unhealthy actors.
Past Identification addresses this by constantly monitoring for any modifications within the person’s surroundings and imposing automated controls to dam entry when configuration drift or dangerous habits is detected. By integrating indicators from the client’s current safety stack (similar to EDR, MDM, and ZTNA instruments) alongside native telemetry, Past Identification transforms threat insights into actionable entry selections. This allows organizations to create insurance policies tailor-made exactly to their enterprise wants and compliance necessities, making certain a safe and adaptable method to entry management.
Identification Admins and Safety Practitioners – Eradicate Identification Assaults in Your Organizations
You seemingly have already got an identification resolution in place and should even use MFA. The issue is, these methods are nonetheless weak, and attackers are properly conscious of easy methods to exploit them. Identification-based assaults stay a major risk, concentrating on these weaknesses to achieve entry.
With Past Identification, you’ll be able to harden your safety stack and eradicate these vulnerabilities. Our phishing-resistant authentication resolution ensures each person identification and machine compliance, offering deterministic, cutting-edge safety.
Get in contact for a personalised demo to see firsthand how the answer works and perceive how we ship our safety ensures.
