How to Prevent Brute Force Attacks On Your Online Assets?

Accessing user or employee accounts through brute-force attacks is the most common path to infiltrate a network. Cybercriminals use brute-force attacks to crack account passwords, gain access to confidential data and information, and misuse it for financial gains. Such attacks bombard a system or account with multiple passwords until the right one is accepted. Brute-force attacks are quite easy to execute, due to which they are used frequently and successfully.

As much as brute-force attacks are easy to execute, it is equally easy to prevent them and optimize the security of a setup. A few password protection practices can prevent the success of such attacks. However, relying only on that might not be enough. Investing in network monitoring, threat detection, and response plans is crucial to identify and mitigate the actual threat.

Get into the details of this article to learn and explore how you can prevent brute force attacks and take active measures to optimize the cybersecurity of your setup.

Top 5 Ways to Prevent Brute Force Attacks

Brute-force attacks are the most common tactic cybercriminals use to hack into the accounts of an organization and misuse them. Poor and negligent password practices specifically make it easier for hackers to achieve their goals and compromise the confidentiality and security of user data. A few cybersecurity practices and investing more in cyber security can prevent brute-force attacks and optimize overall security. Implementing these practices can help you prevent brute-force attacks smoothly.

Here are some of the tried and tested ways you can follow to prevent brute force attacks and protect your setup from potential threats.

Enforce Login Limits

Enforcing login limits is the first and foremost way to prevent brute-force attacks. Such attacks follow the strategy of bombarding an account with multiple password attempts until it is finally cracked. No authentic user will try entering random passwords even if they forget the right one.

Enforcing login limits will lock the account after a few password attempts. It will allow users to cool down, rethink the right password, or even contact the administrator for account access. It significantly boosts account security. However, it might not always be sufficient. Due to this, authorities also hire managed detection and response services and rely on cyber security companies to watch and prevent account hacking attempts.

Use Strong Password

Using strong passwords is the simplest and quickest way to prevent brute-force attacks. Weak passwords can be easily cracked in a few attempts. On the other hand, complex and long passwords are considered strong as they cannot be cracked easily. On top of this, if you enforce login limits, you will get notified of brute force attack attempts.

If you cannot think of complex passwords or cannot remember them without writing them down somewhere, you can try using password management tools. These cannot only generate strong and unique passwords for multiple accounts but can also make it easy for you to retrieve them.

Implement Multi-Factor Authentication

Implementing multi-factor authentication is the next way to prevent brute-force attacks. Relying only on passwords to protect the accounts is not sufficient anymore. Besides brute force attacks, cybercriminals can use other strategies to gain access to accounts.

With multi-factor authentication, cracking the password and gaining account access becomes impossible for criminals. You can easily opt for authentication measures like code through the mobile number, facial recognition, biometrics, and other such measures. It will specifically hinder the login attempt even if the hackers know the exact login credentials and passwords.

Educate the Employees

Educating the employees is the next typical way to prevent brute-force attacks. Employees handle the official accounts most frequently. So, poor cybersecurity practices or negligent behavior can facilitate brute-force attacks and social engineering attacks. Educating the workforce about password security and management is extremely crucial.

You can also educate them about common tactics cybercriminals use and potential loopholes they can exploit. Moreover, share and stress the importance of practicing cyber hygiene. You can also onboard professional cybersecurity experts to offer training and guidance to your workforce and implement the necessary protocols.

Monitor Network Activity

Monitoring the network activity is the last way you can prevent brute-force attacks. It is not just crucial to monitor the user activity on a network but also entity activity to get deeper insights. Network monitoring will highlight typical issues in terms of credential stuffing, repetitive access requests, and numerous other indicators of brute force attacks.

Once you identify suspicious trails and activities, you can implement response measures to limit or prevent potential damage. However, it is only possible when you have professional expertise in the area. You can also hire experts from managed detection and response services and ensure proactive monitoring and quick response to contain the damages.

Have you implemented brute-force attack prevention strategies?

If you do not know where to get started, using strong passwords and implementing multi-factor authentication can suffice. You can also consult and onboard professional service providers to boost the security of your accounts and prevent any such threats.