Credential theft is a type of cybercrime in which the victim’s proof of identity is stolen. After successful credential theft, the attacker will have the same account privileges as the victim. The first stage of a credential-based attack is credential theft. It allows attackers to operate undetected across a network, reset passwords, and cause havoc within an organization. Credential-based attacks enable threat actors to adopt the personality of an individual who is authorized to access targeted data, transforming every attack into an insider threat.
Phishing:
Phishing attacks are frequently carried out when a cybercriminal poses as a member of the users’ social or professional networks – either as an individual or as an entity. The phishing attack is used to infect systems with malware and gain complete unauthorized access to sensitive data.
Malware:
Malware attacks are a combination of malicious programs such as spyware, computer viruses, Trojan horses, or worms that are designed to disrupt and gain unauthorized access to an organization’s network.
Brute Force Attack:
Brute force attacks are difficult to defend against because automated software is used to guess combinations of usernames and passwords until they are successful. Servers that do not monitor failed attempts are more vulnerable to this type of credential theft, as automated attacks can try thousands of guesses per second.
Credential Stuffing:
Credential Stuffing is an automated attack that uses bots to test millions of stolen username and password combinations on a specific website or application. Attackers rely on the reuse of these credentials across multiple applications and websites to generate significant profits.
Application Vulnerabilities:
Application vulnerabilities are flaws in a system that can be exploited to compromise the security of the system. These vulnerabilities allow attackers to gain access, and once they do, cybercriminals can carry out a credential theft attack by exploiting these vulnerabilities.
|DataNudge 