Cybersecurity Stop Of The Month: Detecting And Responding To An Account Takeover
Proofpoint, Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
The Cybersecurity Stop of the Month blog series explores the ever-evolving tactics of today's cybercriminals and how Proofpoint helps organizations better fortify their defenses to protect people against today's emerging threats.
This month's Stop highlights one of the most high-risk, high-impact attack scenarios that we see: account takeovers (ATOs). While phishing emails are often the entry point, today's attackers have multiple options for breaking in. These include brute force attacks, multifactor authentication (MFA) bypass (like SIM swapping), adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attacks, helpdesk social engineering and malware-to name a few. All of these tactics can lead to a successful ATO, especially in digital workspaces where identity is the new perimeter.