Posts exploring how attackers steal usernames, passwords, and authentication tokens through phishing, keylogging, brute force attacks, and credential stuffing. Includes actionable guidance on multi-factor authentication, password managers, and monitoring for compromised credentials.
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In March 2022, the Lapsus$ group didn't crack some zero-day vulnerability to breach Okta. They bribed an employee. They socially engineered their way into a third-party support provider and pivoted from there. No malware. No exploit kit. Just a human being making a decision. That single incident put
In March 2022, the Lapsus$ threat actor group breached Okta by socially engineering a third-party support contractor. No malware. No zero-day exploit. Just a human being who got manipulated. The breach potentially affected hundreds of Okta's enterprise customers, and it started with the simplest attack vector there is
In 2020, a teenager convinced a Twitter employee he was a co-worker from the IT department. That single phone call led to the compromise of 130 high-profile accounts — including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple — and a Bitcoin scam that netted over $100,000 in hours. The attack wasn'
The Breach That Started With a Single Stolen Password In May 2021, a single compromised password shut down fuel distribution across the Eastern United States. The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack disrupted gas supplies for days and cost the company a $4.4 million ransom payment. The root cause? A legacy
In January 2022, the International Committee of the Red Cross disclosed that a sophisticated cyberattack compromised the personal data of more than 515,000 vulnerable people — including missing persons, detainees, and their families. The breach didn't happen because of some exotic zero-day exploit. It happened because of a
The 123456 Problem Is Worse Than You Think In December 2021, NordPass published its annual list of the most common passwords. Sitting at number one — for the third year running — was "123456." Number two? "123456789." These aren't passwords from 2005. They're passwords
In January 2022, the Crypto.com breach exposed a brutal truth: 483 accounts were compromised and roughly $34 million drained — in part because attackers found ways around weak authentication controls. That incident is just one in a long line of breaches where stolen or bypassed credentials were the root cause.
In January 2022, the Red Cross disclosed a cyberattack that compromised personal data of over 515,000 vulnerable people. The attack exploited unpatched vulnerabilities — but the investigation also revealed compromised credentials as a contributing factor. It's a pattern I see constantly. And every time it happens, I get
The 61% Problem Nobody Talks About The 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 61% of all breaches involved credentials. Not sophisticated zero-day exploits. Not nation-state malware. Passwords. Stolen, reused, guessed, and phished passwords remain the single largest attack vector threat actors exploit today. I've spent years
In January 2022, a credential stuffing attack hit Norton LifeLock, compromising roughly 925,000 accounts. The common thread? Weak and reused passwords. I've spent years watching organizations hemorrhage data because employees — and everyday users — still think "Company2022!" is a strong password. It's not. This
