Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Modern security leaders know that account takeover detection (ATO) isn’t just about spotting a bad login. ATO attacks are part of a broader scam lifecycle – starting with phishing or impersonation, escalating into credential harvesting, and ending with unauthorized access. To stop ATOs effectively, security teams need visibility into this full progression, not just the login attempt. That’s why a true ATO prevention strategy starts long before a password is entered.

For security teams, it’s no great revelation to say that DNS cache poisoning prevention is essential for guarding against attacks using that vector. But it’s easier said than done. While traditional network-layer defenses like DNSSEC reduce poisoning risk, they can’t fully prevent it. Downstream – after redirection – bad actors await, ready to harvest credentials, bypass MFA, and take over accounts.

Credential stuffing attacks are one of the most persistent and damaging account-based threats facing security teams – and one of the hardest to detect. Most enterprises rely on server-side, post-login detection, which captures only successful login attempts. Failed attempts remain invisible, slowing time-to-detection and increasing the risk of successful account takeovers (ATOs). Why is this such a challenge? The reasons are many, as we’ll explore.