How to combat ATO with biometric authentication
Account takeover (ATO) fraud is a growing threat in today’s fast-paced digital economy, threatening businesses and individuals alike. This form of cybercrime involves attackers gaining unauthorized access to online accounts by exploiting weak credentials, phishing scams, or data breaches. The consequences can be devastating, including financial losses, compromised personal information, and a loss of trust in your business and your brand.
As traditional security measures like passwords become increasingly vulnerable, innovative solutions are stepping up to combat this fraud. Biometric authentication -- leveraging unique biological traits such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or voice patterns -- offers a powerful, secure alternative.
In this blog, we’ll explore how enhancing your ATO prevention strategy with biometric authentication will help to reduce fraud, improve your customer experience, and strengthen your overall security posture against ATO fraud.
Understanding account takeover fraud
ATO fraud occurs when cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to an individual’s online account, such as a bank account, email account, or social media profile, and use it for malicious purposes. It can occur through a variety of methods:
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Social engineering attacks that exploit human behavior and trust, e.g., phishing, social engineering, and SIM swap fraud.
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Credential exploitation methods that rely on stealing and misusing login credentials, e.g., data breaches and credential stuffing.
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Automated or brute-force attacks that involve automated tools to guess or test combinations of credentials.
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Interception or device exploitation methods that involve capturing data or exploiting compromised devices, e.g., malware or man-in-the-middle attacks.
How to prevent account takeover fraud
ATO fraud is a critical challenge for financial institutions, driven by increasingly sophisticated cybercriminal tactics. There are many effective ways to prevent account takeover fraud, which we go into detail in our previous blog post on ATO.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Often considered the cornerstone of ATO prevention, multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires users to verify their identity using multiple credentials before gaining access to an account or system. These credentials typically include something the user knows (like a password), something they have (like a smartphone or authentication token), and sometimes something they are (like a fingerprint or facial recognition).
While MFA significantly enhances security by making unauthorized access more difficult, it also introduces potential threats. Cybercriminals have developed sophisticated phishing attacks and social engineering tactics to trick users into revealing their authentication codes. Additionally, compromised authentication apps or stolen hardware tokens can be exploited to bypass MFA protections. As organizations increasingly adopt MFA, it's crucial to implement strong security policies and user education to mitigate these emerging risks.
Risk-based authentication
Risk-based authentication evaluates the risk level of a login attempt based on various factors, such as device type, location, and user behavior. If an authentication attempt is deemed high-risk (e.g., logging in from an unfamiliar device or an unusual geographic location), it may require additional verification steps, such as a one-time passcode or biometric confirmation.
While risk-based authentication enhances security by dynamically adjusting access requirements, it also introduces vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals can use tactics like session hijacking or spoofed locations to bypass enhanced security checks. Additionally, overly aggressive security policies can lead to user frustration, increasing the likelihood they will circumvent security controls, which may expose systems to breaches.
Real-time monitoring
Real-time monitoring is a security approach that continuously tracks account activity, user behavior, and network traffic for suspicious patterns. By analyzing live data, organizations can identify suspicious patterns, prevent breaches, and quickly mitigate security incidents.
Cybercriminals can still evade detection by employing sophisticated techniques like encrypted attacks or zero-day exploits that bypass traditional monitoring systems. Additionally, excessive monitoring can lead to false positives, overwhelming security teams with alerts and making it harder to distinguish genuine threats from routine activity.
AI and machine learning
AI and machine learning are transformative technologies that enable computers to analyze vast amounts of data, identify subtle fraud patterns that humans might miss, and flag anomalies that suggest unauthorized account access – all in real time. Machine learning-based fraud detection models can also analyze vast amounts of authentication data to identify patterns linked to account takeover attempts, to improving ATO detection accuracy over time.
AI-driven systems can instantly block suspicious login attempts, prompt additional verification steps, or lock accounts to prevent unauthorized access. They can also adjust security requirements based on risk levels, requiring additional authentication when unusual activity is detected.
However, despite their benefits, AI and machine learning can still pose risks, with cybercriminals finding new ways to exploit these advanced security measures via automated phishing campaigns, deepfake scams, and other sophisticated attacks.
Biometric authentication
Biometric authentication is a security method that verifies a user’s identity based on unique biological traits, such as fingerprints and voice recognition. Because biometric data is difficult to replicate, it enhances security by reducing reliance on passwords and preventing unauthorized access.
However, despite its advantages, biometric authentication still presents risks. Cybercriminals can exploit vulnerabilities in biometric systems through spoofing attacks, such as deepfake technology or synthetic fingerprints, to bypass authentication. Additionally, storing and transmitting biometric data introduces privacy concerns, as breaches could expose highly sensitive personal information.
To truly safeguard customer accounts and sensitive data, businesses need to adopt a multi-layered security approach in combination with biometric authentication as a central pillar in their ATO prevention strategy.
How to utilize biometrics to stop ATO attacks
Biometric authentication offers robust protection against ATO attacks by leveraging the unique biological traits of individuals:
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Focus on who the user is, not what they know (passwords) or have (devices)
Biometrics, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, rely on inherent traits that cannot be guessed, stolen, or replicated as easily as passwords or devices. Unlike passwords or personal information, biometrics cannot be compromised through phishing or vishing. In addition, they can’t be sold on the dark web.
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Instant authentication of the individual
Biometrics can authenticate the user themselves, ensuring that only the rightful account owner can gain access—not just someone who knows the correct password or PIN, or answer security questions to reverify. It can take hours or even days for someone to realize their account has been hacked. This proactive approach prevents attacks before they even occur, eliminating the lag time during which victims realize their accounts have been breached.
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Liveness detection for anti-spoofing
Advanced biometric systems integrate liveness detection to ensure that the presented biometric data is from a live individual, not a photo, recording, or 3D model. This safeguard is crucial in countering spoofing attempts and bolstering security.
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Countering GenAI fraud
Biometrics incorporate defenses against AI-generated deepfakes and injection attacks, ensuring fraudsters cannot deceive authentication systems with manipulated data.
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Enhancement of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Biometric authentication serves as a powerful second factor within MFA frameworks, offering much stronger protection than traditional options like passwords or SMS-based tokens. This additional layer of security solidifies defenses against ATO fraud.
Benefits of biometrics to prevent ATO attacks
Biometric authentication is extremely difficult to falsify, enabling organizations to offer robust protection for their user data, reduce digital fraud, and build long-lasting trust with their customers. From facial and voice recognition to advanced multimodal systems, it provides a powerful solution for preventing ATO attacks that is reshaping how individuals and organizations approach identity verification.
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Strengthen security and real-time fraud detection
Biometrics leverage unique, hard-to-replicate traits, such as fingerprints and facial recognition, ensuring robust protection against attackers. Enhanced by AI-driven fraud detection, biometric systems assess risk in real time, enabling proactive prevention rather than reactive responses. Unlike passwords, which can be compromised without immediate detection, biometrics block fraudulent access before it happens, minimizing exposure to ATO risks.
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Reduce customer friction
Biometric authentication simplifies the user experience, providing fast and seamless verification compared to time-consuming password resets or SMS-based MFA. This combination of security and convenience boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty, overcoming the trade-offs often seen with traditional MFA methods. In addition, biometric systems align with regulatory compliance standards like PSD2, GDPR, and KYC by enhancing identity verification and generating audit trails for traceability.
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Lower costs
The implementation of biometric authentication lowers operational costs by reducing fraud losses, minimizing password recovery efforts, and decreasing customer service inquiries. And, by preventing future breaches, businesses can avoid costly remediation efforts, offering significant long-term savings.
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Mitigate reputational risks
Data breaches and fraudulent activity can severely damage customer trust and brand reputation. By integrating biometrics, organizations demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding user accounts, reducing the likelihood of security incidents that could tarnish their reputation.
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Improve future readiness
Biometrics prepare businesses for evolving security demands, positioning them to adapt to sophisticated attacks while supporting emerging technologies like digital wallets and e-IDs. By integrating biometrics, companies ensure their systems are scalable and equipped to handle future innovations and threats.
Implementing biometrics as part of an ATO strategy
Biometric authentication solutions provide a robust and scalable foundation for preventing ATO attacks, and choosing the right biometric modalities is essential. Facial recognition and voice authentication are two highly effective options that, when used together in a multimodal approach, deliver an even higher level of security and reliability.
With the growing sophistication of fraud tactics, including those driven by generative AI, biometric systems have integrated capabilities to detect and counteract threats like deepfakes and injection attacks. Liveness detection ensures that only real, live individuals are authenticated, effectively preventing spoofing attempts and maintaining trust in the system.
A multilayered defense strategy further amplifies the benefits of biometric authentication. When combined with other signals for risk-based and adaptive security measures, biometrics can dynamically assess the level of risk and provide appropriate authentication requirements. This ensures that high-risk transactions or unfamiliar logins are met with additional scrutiny while maintaining a seamless experience for users.
Enrolling biometric data during the identity verification process is another key factor in building a secure system. This step creates a high-assurance foundation by linking biometrics directly to the verified individual from the outset. Additionally, securely storing this data is critical. Organizations must use strong encryption methods and comply with privacy regulations to ensure that biometric information remains protected. Partnering with an experienced provider like Mitek can make this process both efficient and compliant.
Getting help with account takeover fraud prevention
By partnering with an innovator in the fraud space and implementing biometrics effectively, organizations can upgrade their customer authentication strategy, strengthening security and improving the user experience while staying ahead of emerging threats like account takeover fraud. As fraud tactics continue to evolve, biometric authentication stands out as a future-ready solution that not only prevents ATO fraud but also builds a secure and trustworthy digital ecosystem.
