How can you teach employees to protect against authentication attacks?

you can take to educate and train employees: -Awareness Training -Phishing Awareness -Strong Password Policies -Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) -Regular Security Updates -Social Engineering Awareness -Use of Secure Networks -Incident Reporting -Regular Training Updates -Simulated Attacks -Documentation and Resources -Reward and Recognition Remember that ongoing education and reinforcement are key to building a security-conscious culture within an organization. Regularly assess the effectiveness of your training programs and adjust them as needed to address emerging threats.

It's important to understand that "complexity" isn't the best way to make a password stronger, length is. Once this is conveyed to an employee, it can help them use easier to remember passwords. A passphrase is not only easy to remember, but becomes exponentially for an attacker to break. A password like "i-like-super-longer-passwords-for-real" is much better than aB!2dd((s A useful tip to convey when communicating this information is that if someone encounters a complex password limit using a passphrase, that using a standard first letter uppercase, same digit end is sufficient as long as all passphrases are different. e.g "I-like-super-longer-passwords-for-real1"

Promote the use of multi-factor authentication as an additional layer of security. Explain the benefits of MFA in preventing unauthorized access even if passwords are compromised. Tailor training content to different employee roles and responsibilities. For instance, system administrators may need more in-depth training on securing authentication systems. Foster a culture of continuous learning by providing resources and updates on evolving cybersecurity threats. Share real-world examples of authentication attacks and their consequences.

Teach employees to safeguard against authentication attacks by promoting strong passwords, implementing multi-factor authentication, and providing phishing awareness training. Emphasize the importance of keeping login credentials confidential, conduct simulated phishing exercises, and regularly update employees on cybersecurity threats. Fostering a security-conscious culture reduces the risk of successful authentication attacks.

Password managers with a combination of multifactor authentication is key to reduce the user's risk profile. It is also important that the individual site passwords managed by the manager is complex enough and not easily guessable by thread actors. Use seperate browsers/application when logging in on services, for example banking related work and non banking work. This reduces the chance that if a password manager/browser has a memory or a zero day vulnerability from cross accessing memory from another application.

Be an amazing dungeon master. Hear me out: Talk to your admins first — Don’t tell them good advice… people don’t learn or remember well by being talked at. Give them a scenario, and let them play it out and solve it. After the Vegas MGM social engineering attacks resulting in absurd losses, I posed questions to our admins >> “If we were hit like this today, do you think we would be equipped to handle it? Who would have been our most vulnerable targets? How about technical controls? If you had full control, how would you improve this process?” Empower your IAM and Infra admins, SMEs and others craft compelling ideas for improvement with impromptu security tabletop exercises (IE, fantastic collaborative, creative conversation).

Educating on Phishing is crucial; making employees as our defenders. Keep these to make your phishing awareness/ Education more effective 1. Analyse your employees awareness level on Phishing and then Plan ( one plan never fits for all) 2. Run surprise and multiple simulations with different modus-operandi to assess 3. Develop KPI’s to assess them for an example use circumstance, Mode of attack, Reporting level, Peer interaction, Device used and more 4. Develop employee centric and individual level filtering and report models 5. Create training programs on the basis of assessment and simulation report . 6. Set a goal , Give recognition to best defenders 7. Make it a culture

Situational awareness, or "Spidey Sense" as I like to call it, is a critical skill to develop to avoid being tricked or scammed. The adage "if it is too good to be true" is your first litmus test. Second, threat actors typically prey on emotions. So, if you are ever confronted with an email expressing a great urgency (e.g. your bank emails you asking for your password and pin now because they detected fraudulent activity) or that tugs at an emotionally charged subject (e.g. something political, or donations for a recent humanitarian cause) then alarm bells should be going off in your head. Third, recognize when you might be under stress when decision making is impaired (e.g. just before a holiday, end of month close, etc)

For social engineering and phishing, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of display name spoofing, verify HTTPS, identify the source address in detail, and perform a pre-check before responding or clicking. Never share any personal or official sensitive information in plain text, and always cross-check. It is mandatory to follow awareness guidelines, responding with proper understanding rather than reacting impulsively.

Phishing is getting complex, bait is getting difficult to determine if it is legitimate or not. If you have doubts, call the individual or company/service and ask before you click. Never click on an imbedded link, type the URL into the search. Redirects are easy to set up. Report suspicious communications to your IT security department and never give out personal information or authenticators.

I think that companies should implement and require that their employees use muti-factor authentication as a means of securing access to their network and other resources. This will reduce (not eliminate) unauthorized access to company resources.

MFA is crucial, and its efficiency is paramount. The traditional MFA, like using a password and email, is common and has vulnerabilities. Instead, incorporating a secondary factor such as biometrics or an Authenticator is advisable. Moreover, for encryption, complying with recommendations for securing data in transit is essential for improvement.

In my opinion, if your serious about security and want to avoid a breach, MFA is absolutely essential. A succesful phishing attack without MFA would result in an immediate breach but with MFA you would prevent the majority of (less sophisticated) phishing attacks as well as protect from password re-use or poor password hygeine. Enable MFA for your users but promote the consistent use of MFA across all of your employees accounts and re-inforce the benefits.

Conducting training which mimics attack scenarios - especially on systems with MFA, SMS or other means are configured is suggested practice. Often times the preparations ends at establishing process but the trainings are missed out. Frequent mandatory trainings are highly recommended to establish secure environments.

Security awareness training can be and should be part of onboarding process. Keep this in mind since all the points mentioned in this article and such cover the basics of security awareness trainings.

When training your employees it's important to use positive messaging and ensure that the security team remains approachable. It's important for staff to feel comfortable to approach an cybersecurity team to discuss concerns or obtain clarification. If addressing an incident with a user, ensure to make it a learning experience, explain what they missed and how to avoid it next time.

Encourage regular monitoring of their accounts for unusual activities or unrecognized logins. Show them how to review login history and set up alerts for suspicious account activity.

Consider gaining awareness and hands-on experience with insider threats, DDoS attacks, and understanding ransomware. Additionally, recognizing that device and usage security is a personal responsibility is crucial and must be understood.