CyberGuard dictionary / Fraud & Online Safety
Account Takeover
Unauthorized control of another person’s online account.
In simple terms
Someone gets into an account that is not theirs and acts as its owner.
Technical explanation
Attackers may use stolen passwords, session tokens, phishing, or recovery abuse; detection and recovery vary by service.
A takeover may persist through active sessions, recovery settings, added authenticators, or delegated access even after a password change. Recovery should inspect those paths and financial changes.
Examples in practice
A criminal signs in to a merchant account with a stolen password and changes the payout details.
The merchant resets its password but the attacker still holds a valid session. Support revokes all sessions, removes an unfamiliar authenticator, and checks whether payout details changed.
Why it matters
MFA, unique passwords, and alerts can reduce or reveal unauthorized access.
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Sources and further reading
Published 2026-10-15 · Last updated 2026-10-15 · CyberGuard editorial content. Source links provide context; they do not imply endorsement.