Three trends to watch for in the looming ‘credentials crisis’

As we look back at the cyber threat environment over the last year, stolen credentials were a driving factor, leading to disrupted lives, stolen data, business shutdowns, and billions of dollars in financial losses. The 2023 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that of the 83% of all breaches that involved external actors, 49% of those leveraged the use of stolen credentials.

Millions of sets of credentials were compromised last year, through third-party breaches, info-stealer malware infections, network intrusions or other methods before making their way to forums, dark web marketplaces, or other sites. Regardless of their source, the massive number of stolen legitimate credentials available underscores the pervasive nature of the threat...