Overview#
Unauthorized use of an account after credentials or tokens are compromised. Frequently follows credential stuffing, phishing, or session hijacking and results in fraud or data exposure.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Account Takeover for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Account Takeover activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Account Takeover works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Account Takeover, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Account Takeover healthy.
- Map Account Takeover practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Account Takeover might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Account Takeover failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Account Takeover continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Account Takeover with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Account Takeover improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.