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Account takeover is on the rise: how to protect yourself


Everyone has a friend who has been subject to account takeover attack. With 24 billion exposed accounts available online, this type of identity theft is now rampant in the digital domain. This article from OctaFX security experts explores the nature of account takeover attacks and advises on how to protect yourself from them.

A recent research by Digital Shadows showed that more than 24 billion exposed credential pairings are available for sale online. That is a 65 per cent increase from 2020, probably due to more sophisticated malware and social engineering, as well as improved credential sharing.

With passwords such as "123456" still accounting for more than one hundred million exposed cases, account takeovers are bound to continue. However, there are ways to avoid them, which we will cover later in the article. First, let’s consider whether account takeover (ATO) is something that everyone really has to worry about.

How does account takeover happen?

The ATO attacks are somewhat similar to burglary. Fraudsters or hackers either crack your password using special software—just as burglars do to open the doors of a building—or get it from you through social engineering and dedicated malware. Then they make it impossible for you to log into your account by changing the password. Unlike the case with burglars, you can lose all your sensitive information, as well as your money, at once. After online fraudsters take all they want from your accounts, they might sell it on the dark web as part of a database consisting of such accounts.

There are several most common types of account takeover attacks carried out to steal  your credentials:

Account takeover is on the rise: how to protect yourself

Five tips from OctaFX on how to protect your accounts from takeover

The OctaFX security experts have come up with several important rules that every internet user must follow to protect their accounts from cyber attacks:

What to do if you suspect that someone is trying to take over your account?

Don’t panic. If you received a message indicating that someone is trying to log into your account, check its login history and the devices that have access to it, if such information is available. If anything seems suspicious to you, or you know for certain that it wasn’t you who entered the account, change your password immediately. Look carefully if any information of yours has been altered or removed, and try to recover it.

What to do if fraudsters take over your account?

An account takeover is something anyone may encounter at some point in their internet life. Following the above rules significantly reduces the risk of becoming a victim of ATO and losing all your most important accounts at once.

OctaFX is a global broker providing online trading services worldwide since 2011. It offers commission-free access to financial markets and a variety of services already utilised by clients from 150 countries who have opened more than 12 million trading accounts. Free educational webinars, articles, and analytical tools they provide help clients reach their investment goals.

The company is involved in a comprehensive network of charity and humanitarian initiatives, including the improvement of educational infrastructure and short-notice relief projects supporting local communities and small to medium enterprises.

On a side note, OctaFX has also won more than 50 awards since its foundation, including the 2021 ‘Best ECN Broker’ award from World Finance and the 2022 ‘Best Global Broker Asia’ award from International Business Magazine.

#source


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