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Why Strong Digital Identity Authentication Is More Important Than Ever

Posted: 27th October 2021
By: THE RECORDED FUTURE TEAM

79% of organizations experienced an identity-related breach within the past two years alone. And 85% of cybercriminals accessed critical systems and data using stolen credentials. These numbers are a frightening wake-up call that all organizations are targets –regardless of size, market, or industry– and that bad actors are constantly looking for new ways to exploit and breach your company. 

Particularly over the past couple of years, the rise of new technologies and new ways of working has significantly expanded the playing field for cybercriminals. Here’s why:

  • Security practices are outdated: While most business now takes place outside the four walls of the office via cloud, SaaS, mobile and IoT, many organizations are still focused on securing the perimeter – an approach that can’t scale to support today’s highly distributed workforce and the cloud-based applications they need to access to be productive.
  • Ecosystems are more dynamic and complex: Every person within your ecosystem – employees, partners and customers – is a target for cybercriminals looking to steal credentials and gain access to critical systems or information. Those players within your ecosystem likely don’t always follow password and security best practices. But, it is your responsibility to monitor and verify their identity authenticity at all times.
  • Security, Operations and IT Teams are overwhelmed: The rapid shift to a mostly remote workforce created a spike in required credentials, with more people needing access to critical business systems, platforms and channels via multiple devices. Today’s security and IT teams are overwhelmed and, admittedly, far less optimistic about their abilities to secure employee identities.

Take control with proactive, intelligence-led identity fraud detection

Identity protection plays a critical role within an overall security strategy, which is why 80% of organizations have increased their focus on identity security over the past year. While you can’t stop cybercriminals from attempting an attack, you can outsmart, outmaneuver and stop them with the right solutions, processes and policies in place. With an intelligence-driven approach to identity fraud prevention, you can proactively defend your organization against identity compromises in real time and take action before damage to the business is done.

What do we mean by intelligence-driven? Like most companies you are likely flooded with data 24x7, but what are you able to do with all that information? The key is having quick access to useful and actionable data that you can trust. That’s where intelligence comes in. Intelligence is the key to unlocking the potential of security programs and protecting our organizations. The right intelligence, in the hands of the right people, at the right time, stops attackers in their tracks. Here’s how it works:

  • Account takeover prevention: Quickly detect compromises and initiate downstream response workflows before an account takeover occurs
  • Employee identity monitoring: Automate monitoring in real time across the broadest set of sources, including the dark web for mentions of employee credentials
  • Third-party identity monitoring: Automate monitoring and verification of customer and supply chain partner identities to detect and block identity fraud activities

Recorded Future provides real-time intelligence at massive scale

Cases of identity theft more than doubled in 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission. And malware, which is often used for identity theft, increased 358% in 2020. Now is the time to act by implementing an identity fraud protection strategy designed to scale with the pace and complexity of our digital world. 

With Identity Intelligence from Recorded Future, your security and IT teams are no longer bogged down by manual research. Recorded Future automates the collection, analysis, and production of intelligence from a vast range of open source, dark web, and technical sources, and then combines it with world-class research to help drive an accelerated response by your security team.

To learn more about intelligence-led identity fraud detection and Identity Intelligence from Recorded Future, read our new eBook: It’s Time to Take a New Approach to Identity Fraud Protection.

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