Security News > 2021 > February > Account takeover attacks spiked in 2020, Kaspersky says
Kaspersky has released the results of research into fraud detected by its Fraud Prevention platform in 2020, and the results further reinforce what we already knew: 2020 was a banner year for online fraudsters, with account takeovers dominating as the method of choice.
Occurring whenever a bad actor is able to steal login credentials and seize control of an online account, takeover attacks rose from 34% of fraud detected by Kaspersky in 2019 to 54% by the end of December 2020.
Other methods of fraud were blips on the radar compared to account takeovers: The next most popular method, at just 16% of detected fraud, was money laundering/mule transactions, followed by new account fraud, and a mere 12% of instances used remote access or hacking tools to accomplish their goals.
Two of the most popular methods of committing account takeover, according to Kaspersky, are rescuer and investor scams, and both involve voice phishing by directly calling victims, something that the FBI recently warned was a growing trend.
Account takeovers often involve multiple bad logins before attackers get it right.
Have a team dedicated to fraud analysis that can keep up on trends and analyze attacks to find solutions.