What’s the Single Biggest Online Threat Businesses Face Today?
If you guessed sophisticated hacks, zero-day vulnerabilities or compromised networks then you’d be wrong. Today’s largest threat? Identity.
Attackers have figured out that it’s easier to use stolen credentials to waltz right through your digital front door than try to brute-force their way through endless firewalls.
The problem…
Passwords and traditional multifactor authentication solutions simply aren’t enough to protect against credential harvesting malware, cookie stealing bots and the like. Attackers are using sophisticated tools to steal credentials and then mimic legitimate users to slip past legacy security defenses.
Luckily, behavioral analysis authentication exists.
What You’ll Learn:
- What Is Behavioral Analysis Authentication?
- Why Are Identity-Based Threats on the Rise?
- Types of Identity-Based Attacks
- Behavioral Analysis Authentication to the Rescue
- Bonus: The Future of Identity Security
What Is Behavioral Analysis Authentication?
Behavioral analysis authentication is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a type of user authentication that relies on how people interact with their devices and digital environments.
Rather than credentials like passwords or traditional MFA questions and challenges, it takes note of dozens of different signals that make up each user’s unique behavioral profile. Speed and cadence of typing, mouse usage patterns, navigation tendencies and even how a smartphone is held can all be monitored and assessed.
Think of it this way. Sure, someone can steal a user’s password. But they can’t consistently mimic how that user uniquely scrolls through pages, moves their mouse or types out login information.
Behavioral analysis authentication continuously authenticates users based on this wealth of behavioral information. It’s a solution that was built in response to the rise of identity-based security breaches like account takeover attacks, credential stuffing and session hijacking. Here’s a closer look at each of these.
Why Are Identity-Based Threats on the Rise?
Cyberattacks that use stolen credentials continued to rise in H1 2025, up 32% from H2 2024. Over 97% of these attacks used passwords.
That stat is from Microsoft’s latest Digital Defense Report, which paints a pretty grim picture for anyone who relies solely on passwords for protection.
Password-centric attacks like credential stuffing, account takeover and password spray attacks simply work too well for attackers to ignore. But why are they becoming so commonplace?
Here are a few reasons…
- Stolen username and password combinations are easy to come by. Leak after leak continues to show billions of stolen credentials live for sale on the dark web.
- Infostealers that silently collect users’ login information are on the rise. These malicious programs grab everything from browser tokens to stored passwords.
- Users are notoriously bad at password hygiene. Password reuse is still a thing and once an attacker has one set of credentials, they often own dozens of user accounts.
As you can see, the reliance on passwords is a huge problem. But thankfully, behavioral analysis authentication helps close this security gap by allowing businesses to know their users are who they say they are, even if their credentials have been compromised.
Types of Identity-Based Attacks
To better understand how behavioral analysis authentication can help, it’s important to dive into some common identity-based attacks.
Credential Stuffing Attacks
Often automated with bots or custom scripts, attackers take lists of previously stolen credentials and test them at scale against websites. With most people recycling passwords frequently, these attacks have a high success rate.
Phishing Attacks
Still the most common attack method. Phishing attacks can take many forms but essentially trick users into divulging their credentials or other sensitive information through fake login screens, malicious email attachments, or social engineering.
Session Hijacking
If an attacker can steal or otherwise observe an active user session, they can use cookie stealing software to “hijack” a valid user session and gain unauthorized access to what the user is doing.
Account Takeover
The worst-case scenario for most businesses. Account takeover (ATO) attacks can result in unauthorized transactions, data theft, and countless other problems.
Every one of these attack vectors involves stealing or duplicating someone’s identity. Traditional security defenses like passwords and MFA simply aren’t enough to stop these attacks.
Behavioral Analysis Authentication to the Rescue
Behavioral analysis authentication relies on something that attackers can’t forge. Each user’s unique behavioral patterns and characteristics.
Tools that enable behavioral analysis authentication work in the background to silently monitor user behavior. Authentication occurs through things like:
- Typing behaviors and rhythms
- Mouse movements and navigation
- Touchscreen swipes and pressure applied
- Device angle and handling characteristics
- In-app page navigation habits
When one of these signals fails to match a user’s established behavioral profile, an alert can be triggered. Maybe how they type doesn’t match. Maybe their mouse movements are off. Maybe their physical location combined with their behavioral data paints an odd picture.
Whenever something feels off, behavioral analytics tools can step in to trigger an alert or challenge.
Since behavioral analysis authentication measures user behavior silently in the background, it doesn’t create any friction for legitimate users. Attackers, on the other hand, won’t know that their behavior is being monitored. They only see the same login screen everyone else does.
By comparing patterns and constantly assessing how users behave, behavioral analytics tools can stop identity-based attacks in their tracks.
Bonus: The Future of Identity Security
The world is in an identity crisis.
Credential stuffing attacks continue to rise. AI-generated phishing attacks are becoming more convincing. And simple password reuse still plagues users across every industry.
This explosive growth in identity-based attacks is likely to continue as well, which means businesses can’t afford to rely on outdated security tools.
Behavioral analysis authentication is one of the best tools in a security team’s arsenal to fight back against identity-based threats. Here’s how your business can future-proof itself today:
- Add behavioral analysis to your existing MFA strategy. Deploying a solution that enables behavioral analysis authentication doesn’t mean replacing your existing strategy. It means layering advanced security on top of what you already have.
- Monitor for leaked credentials. Keep track of any leaked credentials that contain your users’ emails or usernames using a threat intelligence platform.
- Train your users. Password security awareness doesn’t have to be boring. Make sure your users know how to create a strong password and are hyper aware of phishing scams.
- Verify explicitly and trust nobody. Businesses need to move towards a zero-trust security model where users are continuously verified throughout their entire session.
Bringing It All Together
Digital threats that center around stolen identities are here to stay. As AI tools become more sophisticated and hackers find new ways to steal credentials en masse, businesses will face this threat for the foreseeable future.
Behavioral analysis authentication helps your business know your users are who they say they are every time they log in. It can:
- Detect account takeovers as they’re happening
- Stop credential stuffing attacks by identifying bots
- Catch session hijackers through behavioral mismatches
Don’t wait for a breach to happen. Start leveraging the power of your users’ unique behaviors to strengthen your security posture today.
