What Is Account Takeover (ATO)?

Common routes to account takeover

Credential stuffing with passwords reused from other breaches.
Phishing pages that capture passwords and one-time codes.
Session cookies stolen by infostealer malware and found in stealer logs.
SIM swapping to intercept text message codes.
Abusing weak account recovery processes.

What attackers do after a takeover

In a corporate email account, attackers often set up forwarding rules, read conversations to plan business email compromise, and phish the user's contacts from a trusted address. In SaaS and cloud accounts they look for data to steal and access to expand. Because the activity comes from a real account, it can go unnoticed for weeks.

Preventing and detecting ATO

Use phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication.
Revoke sessions, not just passwords, when credentials are exposed.
Alert on impossible travel, new devices and new mailbox rules.
Monitor for leaked credentials and stealer logs linked to your domains.

How DarkInvader helps

DarkInvader alerts you when credentials or stealer log data for your domains appear in leaks, so passwords can be reset and sessions revoked before accounts are taken over. VIP Monitoring adds extra watch over executives' accounts.

Explore Leaked Credentials

Frequently asked questions

What is the first thing to do after an account takeover?

Regain control: reset the password, revoke all active sessions and tokens, and re-register MFA. Then check for changes the attacker made, such as forwarding rules, new devices or altered recovery details.

Can account takeover happen with MFA enabled?

Yes. Stolen session cookies, real-time phishing kits and MFA fatigue attacks can all lead to takeover despite MFA. Phishing-resistant MFA and short session lifetimes reduce the risk.

How is account takeover different from a data breach?

A data breach exposes data from a system. Account takeover is the use of a specific person's account by an attacker, which often follows from credentials exposed in a breach.