Farewell to the Fallen: The Cybersecurity Stars We Lost Last Year
It's time once again to pay our respects to the once-famous cybersecurity solutions whose usefulness died in the past year. The cybercriminal world collectively mourns the loss of these solutions and the easy access they provide to victim organizations. These solutions, though celebrated in their prime, succumbed to the twin forces of time and advancing threats. Much like a tribute to celebrities lost in the past year, this article will look back at a few of cybersecurity's brightest stars that went dark in the past year. 1. Legacy Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)# Cause of Death: Compromised by sophisticated phishing, man-in-the-middle (MitM), SIM-swapping, and MFA prompt bombing attacks. The superstar of access security for more than twenty years, legacy MFA solutions enjoyed broad adoption followed by almost-universal responsibility for cybersecurity failures leading to successful ransomware attacks. These outdated solutions relied heavily on SMS or email-based codes often sent in unencrypted plain text. Their vulnerability to phishing, SIM swapping, and MitM attacks grew glaringly apparent in 2024, leaving their users in a state of near-defenselessness in the face of Generative AI-based attacks. The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency [CISA], part of the Department of Homeland Security, stated that 90% of successful phishing attacks started with phishing. Legacy MFA's inherent weakness is that it relies on users who are well-meaning but no match for modern attack techniques. Legacy MFA was fan-favorite and broadly deployed, but it is the most significant vulnerability in most organizations. Jen Easterly, the director of CISA, captured the urgency of evolving beyond outdated solutions, "…make no mistake, any form of MFA is better than no MFA. But recent attacks make it clear: legacy MFA is no match for modern threats." The Role of FIDO2 and Phishing-Resistant Authentication: In place of legacy MFA, phishing-resistant, FIDO2-compliant solutions have emerged as the gold standard for authentication, driving the industry toward a passwordless future. By leveraging public key cryptography, FIDO2 eliminates shared secrets like passwords, making phishing and replay attacks nearly impossible. Its reliance on hardware security keys and biometrics provides unparalleled security while maintaining simplicity for end users. Biometric authentication greatly enhances security by ensuring that only authorized users can gain network access. It also improves the user experience by removing the need to remember and enter passwords and OTPs.