Phishing, session hijacking, and adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attacks are the most common ways attackers steal digital identities:

• Phishing: Attackers use fake emails and lookalike sites to deceive users into releasing their usernames and passwords.

• Session hijacking: Attackers steal session cookies or tokens, letting them impersonate users without ever needing a password.

• AiTM attacks: Attackers insert themselves between a user and a legitimate login page to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and capture credentials in real time.

These threats often exploit human behavior and gaps in traditional security controls, making identity protection that much more important.

Identity protection is a bit like having a personal (or corporate) digital bodyguard. At its most basic, identity protection protects personally identifiable information (think Social Security number, bank login, employee credentials, etc.) from theft, misuse, or exploitation. But it's much different than just placing a freeze on your credit file. 

Modern identity protection solutions monitor login behavior, detect suspicious activity, and block malicious actors before they can do any harm. That's a win for business, as it also helps catch identity misuse across cloud applications, VPN connections, and single sign-on (SSO) services. You could say that identity protection is the difference between sleeping like a baby and waking up to find that somebody has looted your accounts in the night.

60% of organizations are more concerned than ever about identity threats than endpoint threats. 

—Huntress 2025 Managed ITDR Report

Good question. Identity protection does four big things:

• Protects businesses: Businesses use identity protection services like Huntress Managed ITDR to prevent credential-based attacks from becoming breaches.

• Prevents fraud:Identity protection services monitor your online presence, so if a loan is opened or counterfeit accounts are created with your name, you’ll know right away.

• Combats business email compromise (BEC): Identity protection tools catch suspicious mailbox rules, unauthorized forwarding, and rogue logins that attackers use to trick employees into sending money or sensitive data. 

• Rebuilds trust: In the event that something does get through, robust protection provides recovery tools. This could mean helping people remediate fraud or assisting businesses in evicting bad actors. 

Identity protection for businesses is nuanced. Attackers don’t just want employee credentials. They also want persistence, access to SaaS resources, and lateral movement. For this reason, an increasing number of security teams are turning to identity protection solutions, such as Huntress Managed ITDR. Instead of merely observing, Huntress Managed ITDR actively hunts for compromised accounts, detects suspicious activity, and remediates threats before attackers can escalate privileges or deploy ransomware.

The importance of strong identity protection isn’t limited to tech. It’s also a combination of layered best practices that are harder for attackers to penetrate:

• Identity lifecycle management: Provision and de-provision accounts quickly so ex-employees don’t retain access.

• Continuous monitoring: Look for unusual logins, rogue SaaS apps, and privilege escalations.

• Access controls: Enforce MFA, role-based access, and least privilege permissions so users only have what they need.

Businesses can turn identity protection into a proactive defense with these practices and an enterprise-grade ITDR solution. 

For businesses, attackers want to fly under the radar.  You won’t see obvious red flags. That's why you can't just "check."  

What you need instead are advanced identity protection solutions that: 

• Recognize anomalous location-based logins (someone couldn't be in New York and Tokyo minutes apart). 

• Identify suspicious privilege escalations. 

• Alert on rogue applications in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. 

That's exactly what ITDR platforms such as Huntress offer: proactive monitoring and human-powered detection to catch what automation alone can't.

Businesses often start with point solutions, like MFA, identity and access management (IAM), or basic anomaly detection. While these provide important guardrails, they tend to work in silos and only protect against specific attack methods. Once a credential is stolen or a session hijacked, point solutions can be blind to what happens next.

Enterprise ITDR takes a different approach. Instead of looking at identities in isolation, ITDR platforms continuously monitor accounts across SaaS, cloud, and hybrid environments. They analyze login patterns, detect malicious inbox rules, spot privilege escalations, and identify rogue applications in real-time. They can even pair automation with human expertise to investigate and remediate threats before attackers can escalate their access. Huntress Managed ITDR covers the gaps that point solutions leave behind.

With Huntress, you’re not simply buying another point solution. You’re getting access to a human-powered ITDR service that aggressively hunts for compromised accounts, rogue apps, and all other types of credential-based threats that evade MFA and IAM. 

Need more convincing? You can either read our Managed ITDR Report 2025 or watch our “What is ITDR?” video. Better yet, request a free trial and see what our platform can do for you.