Identity misuse is the unauthorized use, theft, or impersonation of a person’s credentials or identity information to access systems. Instead of breaking security controls directly, an attacker may log in as a legitimate user using stolen passwords, compromised email accounts, copied session tokens, or abused recovery codes.
This matters because many modern services trust identity more than device location or network boundaries. If an attacker can appear legitimate, logs may show a normal login while sensitive data, messages, or administrative actions are exposed. Common defenses include multi-factor authentication, phishing-resistant sign-in methods, strong mailbox protection, session monitoring, and alerting on unusual access patterns. In real attacks, identity misuse often sits at the center of account takeover, internal fraud, and unauthorized access to public or enterprise portals.