Data trends show a clear upward momentum of posts from initial access brokers on the dark web, putting the spotlight on what may become cybersecurity’s greatest challenge.
Any organization that has made cybersecurity a priority is laser focused on putting preventative measures, multiple means of detection, and a response plan in place.
And yet, new data from CrowdStrike’s 2024 Global Threat Report points to one aspect of the strategy that is falling through the cracks: users are falling for credential harvesting attacks by Initial Access Brokers (IAB).
A simple act of social engineering, a credential attack only needs to get the user to believe there’s a file, etc., they need to see and when attempting to do so, are asked for their credentials. There’s no malware to detect, and IABs are smart enough to use techniques to trick users that their impersonated login sites are legitimate.
And according to the CrowdStrike report, the number of posts offering up compromised credentials are on the rise — a trend that can be seen throughout all of last year:
Source: CrowdStrike
If the chart above were an Excel chart and you added a trendline, you can already tell where it would be pointing — toward more and more posts each month. And the 2,992 posts from last year were a 20% increase over the previous year — another detail that demonstrates this is quickly becoming a trend.
As we saw with ransomware actors, there will be more IAB-centric platforms, toolkits, affiliate networks and actors getting into the game. So, what does it mean for organizations? Simple — you need to better protect users from themselves so they don’t go and offer up their credentials because they weren’t paying attention.
And it’s that lack of attention that’s the issue — something mitigated through new-school security awareness training that puts the employee into the right mindset whenever they’re asked unexpectedly for their credentials.
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