Security News
Crypto exchange Coinbase disclosed that a threat actor stole cryptocurrency from 6,000 customers after using a vulnerability to bypass the company's SMS multi-factor authentication security feature. In a notification sent to affected customers this week, Coinbase explains that between March and May 20th, 2021, a threat actor conducted a hacking campaign to breach Coinbase customer accounts and steal cryptocurrency.
Microsoft is investigating an ongoing Multi-Factor Authentication issue preventing some customers from logging into their Microsoft 365 accounts. "We're investigating an issue with Multi-Factor Authentication that is preventing some users from accessing Microsoft 365 services. Additional information will be provided in the admin center under MO287933, the company tweeted."
ManageEngine announced that ADSelfService Plus, its integrated Active Directory self-service password management and single sign-on solution, now offers multi-factor authentication for Outlook on the Web and Exchange admin center logins to add an extra layer of security to Exchange environments. "Going beyond passwords has become necessary for organizations of any size given today's cyberattack landscape. Users rarely take their passwords seriously and, as a result, even simple brute-force attacks are highly successful," said Parthiban Paramasivam, director of product management, ADSelfService Plus.
In part, MFA was intended to thwart a range of compromises that include phishing, spear phishing, credential stealing, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Protecting remote workers from sophisticated phishing attacks requires a toolbox that extends beyond MFA and covers several attack vectors.
Microsoft 365 Defender researchers have disrupted the cloud-based infrastructure used by scammers behind a recent large-scale business email compromise campaign. "The use of attacker infrastructure hosted in multiple web services allowed the attackers to operate stealthily, characteristic of BEC campaigns," Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team's Stefan Sellmer and Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center security researcher Nick Carr explained.
Shay Nahari, Head of Red-Team services at CyberArk, says that they've been increasingly asked by customers to probe their multi-factor authentication defenses, which lead them to pinpoint four main attack vectors used by threat actors to circumvent MFA controls, by exploiting: architectural and design flaws, insecure channels, side channel attacks and insufficient attack surface coverage. The cybersecurity industry has been extolling the virtues of MFA use for years.
JumpCloud announced JumpCloud Protect, a one-touch multi-factor authentication solution that makes it easy for IT admins to deploy and enforce MFA without adversely impacting end users. JumpCloud Protect is a fully featured mobile MFA app, that allows employees authenticating into protected apps and resources to verify themselves directly from their corporate-issued or BYOD mobile device.
Physical security keys introduce a new twist to 2FA. Instead of using a code delivered to your phone, the hardware-based key is a dongle you insert into your company laptop or other registered access device. The private key remains on the device, while the public key is sent to the site with which it is registered.
Yubico announced its next-generation FIPS security keys: the YubiKey 5 FIPS Series. The addition of the YubiKey 5 NFC, YubiKey 5C NFC, and YubiKey 5Ci into the FIPS series lineup significantly expands coverage for mobile-first environments that many organizations have been waiting for.
While MFA adoption and spending is on the rise, organizations are still unclear on best practices and methodologies, Yubico and 451 Research reveal. The findings show that MFA adoption and spending has increased within the enterprise due to a confluence of several factors: the growing recognition that stolen credentials and phishing attacks are at the root of most security breaches; the rise of work-from-home policies due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and the adoption of modern authentication standards such as Fast Identity Online U2F, FIDO2 and WebAuthn that underpin new advances in two-factor and passwordless authentication.