Brute Force Attacks: How to Guarantee Data Protection in Companies

Brute force attacks are an attempt by a user to gain access to an account or system by constantly entering credentials, either manually or automatically.

 The objective of the breach is to discover passwords to enter accounts or find hidden links and get hold of confidential data.

When and Why Are Brute Force Attacks Used?

These types of attacks are unsophisticated, but they have a great advantage. There are numerous types and ways to carry them out, so it is necessary to classify them and explain how to protect your company's data when they are threatened.

1. Acquisition: Account Compromise

This attack is the most typical. A hacker constantly tests credentials and can compromise the account in different ways, steal relevant information, or impersonate the account holder.

2. Data Leak

A data breach is a common consequence of a compromised or discovered website, leaked passwords, or other sensitive data that can result from a brute force attack.

3. Access to the Website

Hackers can also try to break into a website to compromise it or drop some form of malicious software. Some companies may host some data in the cloud and expose relevant information or assets that hackers can get hold of through these attacks.

4. Ad Hijacking

Hackers can break into ad accounts to commit various crimes, including ad fraud. That is why it is essential to have tools like VARONIS capable of detecting and blocking this type of movement.

5. Botnet Recruitment

The same type of compromise that can lead to crypto-jacking can also cause devices to become part of a botnet, capable of contributing to future DDoS attacks.

6. Distribution of Malware/Ransomware

Brute force attacks can be the start of other types of attacks, such as malware or ransomware. Companies must protect their data efficiently since once it enters the system, it is effortless to place any malware on it.

Types of Brute Force Attacks

Brute force attacks can be carried out manually or thanks to various tools that help them carry out this attack to automate the process and achieve a higher success rate.

Manual Credential Stuffing

Credential stuffing refers to hackers trying different combinations to log in and access user accounts. Depending on the type of hackers, this can be a manual process that can take advantage of a known data point such as an email address.

However, this strategy has been largely replaced by automated forms that exponentially increase the chances of success for hackers.

Data-Breach-Informed Credential Stuffing

It's one of the consequences of data breaches that have leaked millions of common account-linked email passwords and associated passwords.

Because of password reuse, hackers know they can try a password/email combination on multiple accounts to pull off a successful attack. This circumstance makes targeted attacks more dangerous because key pieces of logins are known.

The data breaches have also provided information on the most common passwords used on any account. These insights have revealed that the configuration of these passwords needs to be improved.

Automated Credential Stuffing

Trying different email and password combinations can be tricky; however, hackers have access to various tools that allow them to automate the process.

To bypass the lockout, some tools can be run at different time intervals, and a password list can also be used to increase the chances of success.

URL Discovery

Many companies use cloud hosting services like AWS, which must be configured correctly. This has led to a series of high-profile data breaches where databases containing sensitive data were exposed on the internet, and anyone with the correct URL could access the information.

Cryptographic Decryption

Most brute force attacks are attempts to access accounts. However, these attacks can also crack passwords and access data. Many password breaches arrive in encrypted password data that requires specialized tools to crack.

How to Prevent Brute Force Attacks from Succeeding

As we have already mentioned, brute force attacks are generally not sophisticated, so there are some strategies to end them and avoid them.

1. Use 2FA

It would help if you authenticated both factors. This strategy is one of the best ways to defend yourself against this type of attack on the security of your data.

Hackers have come to use automated tools to find the correct password combination and thus gain access to all company data. For this reason, 2FA is an incredible asset that should be considered.

2. Enable CAPTCHA as Part of the Login

Enabling this tool or using something as classic as having the user confirm that they are not a robot can be a wise strategy to avoid brute force attacks. CAPTCHA may detect and block their access depending on the tool the hacker is using.

3. Throttle Login Attempts

Determining a limit of attempts that a user can make to access their username will allow us to avoid receiving both manual and automatic brute force attacks.

 You can limit how often you can attempt to access an account, for example, a maximum of five or 10 times, or trigger an account reset after a specified number of failed attempts.

Another strategy that defends data from brute force attacks very effectively is establishing time intervals between failed attempts, for example, establishing that after three consecutive attempts, access can be attempted again after at least 30 seconds.

Taking advantage of these tools will allow the affected party to alert about a possible behavior anomaly due to the multiple access attempts that have been registered.

4. Require Stronger, Unique Passwords

Through brute force attacks, if you have automated tools, you can obtain the credential sooner or later. For this reason, the longer, more complicated, and unique the credential, the more difficult it will be to find the password.

 Most automated tools use a list of passwords stolen from data breaches to find the correct username and password.