Intelligence-led MFA Enforcement
Intelligence-led Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Enforcement is a modern, risk-adaptive security strategy in which the requirement to use MFA is dynamically triggered or escalated based on real-time external threat intelligence and the calculated risk associated with a specific user, device, or access attempt.
Distinction from Traditional MFA
Traditional MFA is often a static, binary requirement: it's either always required or required only for specific applications. Intelligence-led enforcement, however, introduces context and risk quantification into the authentication decision.
Core Mechanisms
This enforcement model relies on continuous external monitoring to assess the risk of a login attempt:
Threat Intelligence Input: The system consumes external data feeds from sources like Digital Risk Protection (DRP) providers and dark web monitoring tools. Key intelligence includes:
Credential Exposure Status: If the user's password or email has recently appeared in a dark web leak or a breach repository.
Known Attacker Infrastructure: If the login attempt originates from an IP address or geographical location associated with known malicious activity, botnets, or a recent attack on the organization's industry.
Targeted Risk Status: If the user is a high-value target (like an executive or system administrator) whose profile has been found in a Targeted Profile Search.
Risk Scoring and Decisioning: The system assigns a risk score to the login attempt based on the consumed intelligence.
High Risk (Enforce Escalated MFA): If the user's password is leaked, the system immediately demands a high-assurance method (e.g., biometric scan or hardware token) and may force a password reset.
Medium Risk (Dynamic MFA): If the user is logging in from an unusual, but not malicious, geographical location (e.g., a foreign country not normally visited), the system requires a standard MFA prompt (e.g., one-time password).
Low Risk (No MFA/Passive MFA): If the user is on a known, managed device within the trusted corporate network, the system may suppress the MFA prompt for a frictionless experience.
Significance
The strategy is highly effective because it focuses security resources where they are most needed (high-risk logins) and prevents threat actors from gaining initial access via compromised credentials, a key goal of social engineering reconnaissance. It is the ultimate defense against the risk of Identity Contamination, where a personal leak compromises a professional account.
ThreatNG can directly drive Intelligence-led MFA Enforcement by providing the necessary external, unauthenticated threat intelligence to inform an organization's Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems. This strategy shifts MFA from a static requirement to a dynamic, risk-based control, ensuring that the strongest forms of authentication are applied precisely when external threat data confirms a user is at high risk of compromise.
ThreatNG's Role in Intelligence-led MFA Enforcement
External Discovery
ThreatNG performs purely external unauthenticated discovery using no connectors. This process maps the human attack surface and technical vulnerabilities, providing the initial data points for risk assessment without requiring intrusive network access or complex integration setup.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: An attacker's reconnaissance includes finding all external login portals. ThreatNG's discovery process identifies the organization's exposed web applications and subdomains that host login pages. This visibility ensures the security team knows exactly which entry points need to have intelligence-led MFA applied.
External Assessment
ThreatNG’s security ratings and assessments quantify the external identity risk, which serves as the core signal for dynamic MFA enforcement.
Data Leak Susceptibility Security Rating (A-F): This rating is heavily influenced by Compromised Credentials.
Example in Detail: ThreatNG continuously assesses an employee's identity and detects that their corporate email and password have been newly found in a dark web repository (DarCache Rupture). This is the highest risk signal. The poor Data Leak Susceptibility rating is the intelligence that automatically triggers the IAM system to escalate MFA for that specific user's next login attempt, demanding a high-assurance factor (like a FIDO2 key) or blocking the login altogether, even if the user is on a known corporate network.
Cyber Risk Exposure Security Rating (A-F): This rating assesses the security strength of external identity controls.
Example in Detail: ThreatNG can identify the presence of beneficial security controls like Multi-Factor Authentication on external-facing login portals and validate their effectiveness from an attacker's perspective. This intelligence validates that the existing MFA deployment is strong, allowing the system to maintain a lower risk score for non-compromised users.
Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting capabilities translate the threat intelligence into actionable directives that guide the integration with MFA systems.
Prioritized Report: This categorizes risks (High, Medium, Low) and provides practical recommendations for mitigation.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: If the report highlights a set of user accounts with High risk due to new Compromised Credentials, this report acts as the playbook for the security team, instructing them to immediately enforce a password reset and mandatory, phishing-resistant MFA for those specific users.
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous Monitoring of the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings is critical, as it ensures the MFA enforcement is dynamic and based on real-time threat changes.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: A user's account is clean on Monday. On Tuesday, a new data breach occurs, and their credentials are leaked. Continuous monitoring immediately detects the new credential leak in DarCache Rupture. This real-time update in threat intelligence allows the system to instantly change the user's risk profile from low to high, enforcing MFA on their next login attempt before an attacker can use the stolen credential.
Investigation Modules
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide the specific, granular intelligence needed to confirm a high-risk identity and justify MFA escalation.
Dark Web Presence: This module monitors for Compromised Credentials and associated ransomware events.
Example in Detail: An analyst uses this module to confirm that a high-value user's leaked password is being discussed in a dark web forum. This confirmed, high-confidence signal is the necessary precursor intelligence that justifies the enforcement system's escalation of the MFA requirement from a simple SMS code to a more secure authenticator app token.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module discovers public code repositories and uncovers exposed access credentials.
Example in Detail: ThreatNG finds an exposed API Key or cloud credential (Non-Human Identity) in a public Git repository. If this identity is still linked to a system that requires human sign-in, the exposure mandates intelligence-led MFA enforcement and migration to a workload identity.
Intelligence Repositories
The intelligence repositories provide the raw, high-fidelity data that directly informs the intelligence-led MFA policy.
Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): This repository is the definitive source of truth for the most critical signal for MFA enforcement—the volume and identity of leaked passwords.
Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's external threat intelligence is integrated with Identity and Access Management systems to automate the dynamic enforcement action.
Cooperation with IAM Solutions (e.g., Microsoft Entra ID Protection): ThreatNG's detection of a user's Compromised Credentials is sent as a high-risk signal to the complementary IAM system. The IAM system then automatically executes the "intelligence-led enforcement" action: forcing a password reset and demanding a phishing-resistant MFA factor (like a FIDO2 key) for the user's next sign-in, completely preventing the attacker from using the stolen credential.
Cooperation with SIEM Solutions: ThreatNG feeds its external threat intelligence, such as newly discovered compromised credentials, into a SIEM solution. The SIEM can then correlate this external risk with internal login attempts (e.g., logging in from a new IP) and generate a high-confidence alert, which can also be used as a secondary, real-time signal to an MFA system to temporarily lock the account.
