A Case of Password Spraying

Stu Sjouwerman | May 31, 2019
password_small1-resized-600

Citrix last month confirmed the FBI’s suspicions that hackers had used a technique known as “password spraying” to compromise the company’s networks before stealing a massive amount of sensitive information.

Password spraying is a type of brute force attack in which attackers test one weak password against many of an organization’s accounts before moving on to the next password and cycling through the accounts again. Since a reasonable amount of time passes before they attempt to log in to the same account again, the hackers can avoid being locked out for too many failed logins.

Amit Rahav says in Infosecurity Magazine that the Citrix hack is just one of many examples showing that passwords used by themselves are inadequate for security. If just one employee at a targeted organization is using a weak or commonly used password, attackers will likely breach their account.

Password spraying and other account hijacking schemes, such as credential stuffing, are increasing in popularity. If users haven’t implemented proper security measures, including multi-factor authentication, then their accounts are growing more vulnerable by the day. New-school security awareness training can teach your employees how to follow security best practices without causing them undue stress.

Infosecurity Magazine has the story: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/password-spraying-citrix-1/


Find out how affordable new-school security awareness training is for your organization. Get a quote now.

 
Get A Quote
Request A Demo
 

Secure the Digital Workforce: Human + AI

KnowBe4 empowers the modern workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by more than 70,000 organizations worldwide, KnowBe4 is the pioneer of digital workforce security, securing both AI agents and humans. The KnowBe4 Platform provides attack simulation and training, collaboration security, and agent security powered by AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents) and a proprietary Risk Score. The platform leverages 15 years of behavioral data to combat advanced threats including social engineering, prompt injection, and shadow AI. By securing humans and agents, KnowBe4 leads the industry in workforce trust and defense.