Overview
This article will explain the ACSIA alert called "credential theft".
Explaining the credential theft
"Credential theft" refers to the act of stealing or obtaining someone's login credentials (such as usernames and passwords) without their knowledge or consent. This stolen information can then be used by malicious actors to impersonate the legitimate user and gain unauthorized access to systems, networks, or other resources, leading to potential data breaches, identity theft, or other cybercrimes.
Example of a "credential theft" attack:
Let's consider an office environment with multiple employees who have individual user accounts to log in to their work computers and access the company's internal network. An attacker with malicious intent targets this organization.
The attacker sends a carefully crafted email to one of the employees, pretending to be from the company's IT department. The email claims that there is a security update and instructs the employee to click on a link to update their login credentials immediately.
Unaware that this email is a phishing attempt, the employee clicks the link and is directed to a fake login page that looks identical to the legitimate one used by the company. Believing it to be genuine, the employee enters their username and password on the fake page.
Unfortunately, the login credentials are now in the hands of the attacker. The attacker can use this stolen information to access the company's internal network as the employee. Since many employees use the same username and password for multiple services, the attacker may also attempt to log in to other platforms, such as cloud storage or collaboration tools, potentially exposing even more sensitive data.
By carrying out this "credential theft" attack, the malicious actor gains unauthorized access to the organization's systems, putting sensitive data at risk and potentially causing significant harm to the company and its employees.
ACSIA alerts you when a credential theft is being performed on your infrastructure.