Stolen credentials can enable account takeover and lateral movement; phishing-resistant MFA, password managers, and rapid revocation reduce the risk.
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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.
A large-scale brute force password attack using almost 2.8 million IP addresses is underway, attempting to guess the credentials for a wide range of networking devices, including those from Palo Alto Networks, Ivanti, and SonicWall. [...]
The North Korea-linked nation-state hacking group known as Kimsuky has been observed conducting spear-phishing attacks to deliver an information stealer malware named forceCopy, according to new findings from the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC)
A help desk phishing campaign targets an organization's Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) using spoofed login pages to steal credentials and bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) protections. [...]
Researchers measured a threefold increase in credential stealing between 2023 and 2024, with more than 11.3 million such thefts last year.
Espionage and Cybercrime Campaign Tied to 7-Zip Mark-of-the-Web Bypass HitsRussian hackers targeting Ukrainian government agencies and businesses - including a major automotive manufacturer - have been targeting a zero-day vulnerability in the open source and widely used 7-Zip archive utility, to infect systems with credential-stealing SmokeLoader malware.
Picus Security reports infostealer surge after revealing credentials appear in 29% of malware
Check Point Research has found over 10 million stolen credentials associated with EMEA organizations exposed on cybercrime markets
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched vulnerability impacting the Microsoft SharePoint connector on Power Platform that, if successfully exploited, could allow threat actors to harvest a user's credentials and stage follow-on attacks
Hackers hijack high-profile X accounts with phishing scams to steal credentials and promote fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes
Brazilian Windows users are the target of a campaign that delivers a banking malware known as Coyote