As unauthorized access incidents continue to occur frequently, the expansion of AI-enabled phishing and attackers’ initial targeting of credentials have become increasingly evident. The shortened time to compromise and the need for stronger authentication methods have been highlighted.
The article describes how automated AI reconnaissance is used to collect information about a company’s employees and security settings and identify vulnerabilities. It also notes that the availability of IDs and passwords on the dark web is increasing opportunities for intrusion.
According to Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report, phishing and account compromise rank among the leading intrusion vectors, while unauthorized access involving stolen credentials is reported to account for 36% of all incidents.
Cases in which multifactor authentication alone is insufficient are increasing, highlighting the importance of a defense-in-depth approach that combines authentication, including MFA, with authorization. Countermeasures against MFA bypasses using AiTM attacks and infostealers are required.
The article presents a proposal to use a client certificate service based on device IDs. The initiative aims to achieve stronger authentication by using certificates unique to each device and making their private keys non-exportable.