Cyber Defense eMagazine May Edition for 2022

“Very few people would notice the slight differences between the two,” according to the report. “Once
landed on the attacker-owned website, the user will be at ease as they type their credentials away on
what appears to be the legitimate website.”
Remove Danger by Retaking Control
It’s up to businesses to remove the danger presented by BitB phishing attacks by ensuring that
employees can no longer create, view or type passwords to access the company files, apps and systems.
This amounts to taking back access control and removing the risks of human error from the network
access process.
To the untrained eye, which is likely to be the majority of workers, these types of phishing attacks are
dangerous yet impossible to spot. All it takes is for one unsuspecting employee to make a mistake and it
compromises the entire network.
Attacks like these aren’t for quick cash payouts. Actors will sit inside your system and wait to cause the
most damage. All the while, the user continues working without realising they’ve unwittingly given their
credentials away.
This type of attack has been utilised in the past. In 2020, cybercriminals used similar BitB techniques on
the video game digital distribution service Steam to gain access to consumer credentials. Whilst this may
cause damage to individuals, what we’re seeing now is a more aggressive assault on an organisational
level. For the safety of your business, it’s time to take back responsibility and start controlling your own
access.
Password Managers are Not the Solution
While some have recommended using a password manager and Single Sign-On tools to circumvent the
problem, as they automatically input passwords without falling for the replica windows, this still presents
major issues.
Centralising multiple passwords behind a manager’s master password does nothing to prevent access
fraud. It only centralises access information for hackers in a breach scenario. This was the case of the
Lapsus$ group who, after infiltrating Okta’s network, were able to easily find an Excel document filled
with LastPass administrators’ passwords to access Okta’s customers.
Password managers and Single Sign-on tools may provide a surface layer of convenience for users, but
in the event of a breach also offer their company’s keys to the kingdom on a silver platter. Instead, access
segmentation and encrypted passwords distribution is a more effective solution that completely removes
the potential threat of human error or fraud from the equation and safeguards access integrity.
Additionally, businesses might see the appeal in doubling down with multi-factor authentication (MFA)
methods as a precaution. But their initial loss of access control means that not even MFA can guarantee
the legitimacy or integrity of access. Cyber attackers have found many ways to infiltrate those as we’ve
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