Security news aggregator

Latest coverage for Credentials

Stolen credentials can enable account takeover and lateral movement; phishing-resistant MFA, password managers, and rapid revocation reduce the risk.

10 headlines in this view

Refine the feed

Search across headline titles and summaries.

Tag briefing

Background for this topic.

Credentials are the data used to verify a user's identity to a system, commonly including usernames, passwords, security tokens, or biometric identifiers. They serve as gatekeepers for access to accounts, applications, and sensitive information. Attackers target credentials to impersonate users, escalate privileges, or gain unauthorized system access.

Compromise of credentials can occur through phishing, credential stuffing, or theft from insecure storage. Effective defenses include enforcing strong, unique passwords, implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA), and securely storing credentials using hashing or encryption. Monitoring for unusual login patterns and promptly revoking compromised credentials are also critical to limit attacker impact.

Showing 10 most recent headlines Filtered view
The Hacker News 1 year, 2 months ago

Why NHIs Are Security's Most Dangerous Blind Spot

When we talk about identity in cybersecurity, most people think of usernames, passwords, and the occasional MFA prompt. But lurking beneath the surface is a growing threat that does not involve human credentials at all, as we witness the exponential growth of Non-Human Identities (NHIs).  At the top of mind when NHIs are mentioned, most security teams immediately think of Service Accounts.

Bank Info Security 1 year, 2 months ago

Hacks Targeting Cloud Single Sign-On Rose in 2024

Hackers Deploying Infostealers for Data and Credential TheftHacks targeting cloud infrastructure rose significantly last year, with attackers exploiting misconfiguration and single sign-on features to deploy infostealers for data and credential theft. Hackers target centralized cloud assets secured with single sign-ons.

Stolen credentials edge out email tricks for cloud break-ins because they're so easy to get Criminals used stolen credentials more frequently than email phishing to gain access into their victims' IT systems last year, marking the first time that compromised login details claimed the number two spot in Mandiant's list of most common initial infection vectors.…

Phishing attacks remain a huge challenge for organizations in 2025. In fact, with attackers increasingly leveraging identity-based techniques over software exploits, phishing arguably poses a bigger threat than ever before.  Attackers are increasingly leveraging identity-based techniques over software exploits, with phishing and stolen credentials (a byproduct of phishing) now the primary

In what has been described as an "extremely sophisticated phishing attack," threat actors have leveraged an uncommon approach that allowed bogus emails to be sent via Google's infrastructure and redirect message recipients to fraudulent sites that harvest their credentials

Krebs on Security 1 year, 2 months ago

Whistleblower: DOGE Siphoned NLRB Case Data

A security architect with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleges that employees from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) transferred gigabytes of sensitive data from agency case files in early March, using short-lived accounts configured to leave few traces of network activity. The NLRB whistleblower said the unusual large data outflows coincided with multiple blocked login attempts from an Internet address in Russia that tried to use valid credentials for a newly-created DOGE user account.

The Hacker News 1 year, 2 months ago

5 Reasons Device Management Isn't Device Trust​

The problem is simple: all breaches start with initial access, and initial access comes down to two primary attack vectors – credentials and devices. This is not news; every report you can find on the threat landscape depicts the same picture.  The solution is more complex. For this article, we’ll focus on the device threat vector. The risk they pose is significant, which is why device