password security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Passwords are at the core of securing access to an organization's data. However, they also come with security vulnerabilities that stem from their inconvenience. With a growing list of credentials to keep track of, the average end-user can default to shortcuts. Instead of creating a strong and unique password for each account, they resort to easy-to-remember passwords, or use the same password for every account and application.  Password reuse is both common and risky.  65% of users  admit to reusing their credentials across multiple sites. Another analysis of identity exposures among employees of Fortune 1000 companies found a  64% password reuse rate  for exposed credentials. Pair these findings with the fact that a vast majority  (80%) of all data breaches  are sourced from lost or stolen passwords, and we have a serious problem. In short, a breached password from one system can be used to compromise another. So, what does this all mean for your organization?  The real risk o

Google on Tuesday announced the ability for all users to set up passkeys by default, five months after it  rolled out support  for the FIDO Alliance-backed passwordless standard for Google Accounts on all platforms. "This means the next time you sign in to your account, you'll start seeing prompts to create and use passkeys, simplifying your future sign-ins," Google's Sriram Karra and Christiaan Brand  said . "It also means you'll see the ' skip password when possible ' option toggled on in your Google Account settings." Passkeys are a new form of authentication that entirely eliminate the need for usernames and passwords, or even provide any additional authentication factor. In other words, it's a passwordless login mechanism that leverages public-key cryptography to authenticate users' access to websites and apps, with the private key saved securely in the device and the public key stored in the server. Each passkey is unique and

Weak password policies leave organizations vulnerable to attacks. But are the standard password complexity requirements enough to secure them?  83% of compromised passwords  would satisfy the password complexity and length requirements of compliance standards. That's because bad actors already have access to billions of stolen credentials that can be used to compromise additional accounts by reusing those same credentials. To strengthen password security, organizations need to look beyond complexity requirements and block the use of compromised credentials. Need stolen credentials? There's a market for that Every time an organization gets breached or a subset of customers' credentials is stolen, there's a high possibility all those passwords end up for sale on the dark web. Remember the  Dropbox and LinkedIn hack  that resulted in 71 million and 117 million stolen passwords? There is an underground market that sells those credentials to hackers which they can then use in cre

IBM's 2023 installment of their annual " Cost of a Breach " report has thrown up some interesting trends. Of course, breaches being costly is no longer news at this stage! What's interesting is the difference in how organizations respond to threats and which technologies are helping reduce the costs associated with every IT team's nightmare scenario.  The average cost of a breach rose once again to $4.45 million, increasing 15% over the last three years. Costs associated with escalation and detection have rocketed up 42% during the same period. With that in mind, I was surprised to learn that only 51% of the breached entities surveyed by IBM decided to bolster their security investments, despite the rising financial consequences of dealing with a breach. Headline stats around breach costs are interesting – but can digging into these trends actually help you save money? Organizations want to know where to invest their security budget and which technologies offer the bes

As cyber threats continue to evolve, adversaries are deploying a range of tools to breach security defenses and compromise sensitive data. Surprisingly, one of the most potent weapons in their arsenal is not malicious code but simply stolen or weak usernames and passwords. This article explores the seriousness of compromised credentials, the challenges they present to security solutions, and the importance of implementing robust measures to protect Active Directory (AD) environments. Additionally, we introduce Silverfort Unified Identity Protection , a comprehensive solution that offers enhanced security for AD environments against the misuse of compromised credentials. The Power of Stolen Credentials: Full Access to Any Resource  In the world of cyberattacks, stolen usernames and passwords are a highly effective means of gaining unauthorized access to networks and systems. They grant adversaries an entry point, allowing them subsequent access to sensitive on-prem and cloud resource

At a little overt halfway through 2023, credential theft is still a major thorn in the side of IT teams. The heart of the problem is the value of data to cybercriminals and the evolution of the techniques they use to get hold of it. The  2023 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)  revealed that 83% of breaches involved external actors, with almost all attacks being financially motivated. Of these breaches by external actors, 49% involved the use of stolen credentials.  We'll explore why credential theft is still such an attractive (and successful) attack route, and look at how IT security teams can fight back in the second half of 2023 and beyond. Users are still often the weak link The hallmarks of many successful cyberattacks are the determination, inventiveness, and patience threat actors show. Though a user may spot some attacks through security and awareness training, it only takes one well-crafted attack to catch them. Sometimes all it takes is for a user to be

Google on Tuesday announced the first quantum resilient FIDO2 security key implementation as part of its OpenSK security keys initiative. "This open-source hardware optimized implementation uses a novel ECC/Dilithium hybrid signature schema that benefits from the security of ECC against standard attacks and Dilithium's resilience against quantum attacks," Elie Bursztein and Fabian Kaczmarczyck  said . OpenSK  is an open-source implementation for security keys written in Rust that supports both FIDO U2F and FIDO2 standards. The development comes less than a week after the tech giant  said  it plans to add support for quantum-resistant encryption algorithms in Chrome 116 to set up symmetric keys in TLS connections. It's also part of broader efforts to switch to cryptographic algorithms that can withstand quantum attacks in the future, necessitating the need to incorporate such technologies early on to facilitate a gradual rollout. "Fortunately, with the rece

Regardless of the country, local government is essential in most citizens' lives. It provides many day-to-day services and handles various issues. Therefore, their effects can be far-reaching and deeply felt when security failures occur. In early 2023, Oakland, California,  fell victim to a ransomware attack . Although city officials have not disclosed how the attack occurred, experts suspect a phishing email is the most likely cause. As a result, city officials brought down their servers to contain the attack. Governments have been the target to many ransomware attacks  and breaches. As most local governments maintain a small IT staff, there is potential for shared passwords, reused credentials, and a lack of multi-factor authentication security, exposing vulnerabilities for a breach.  Oakland is Breached It was first noticed on a Wednesday evening in early February; when Oakland, California city officials quickly took most services' backend servers offline and posted a m

Microsoft has disclosed that it's detected a spike in credential-stealing attacks conducted by the Russian state-affiliated hacker group known as Midnight Blizzard. The intrusions, which make use of residential proxy services to obfuscate the source IP address of the attacks, target governments, IT service providers, NGOs, defense, and critical manufacturing sectors, the tech giant's threat intelligence team said. Midnight Blizzard, formerly known as Nobelium , is also tracked under the monikers APT29, Cozy Bear, Iron Hemlock, and The Dukes. The  group , which drew worldwide attention for the SolarWinds supply chain compromise in December 2020, has  continued  to rely on  unseen tooling  in its targeted attacks aimed at foreign ministries and diplomatic entities. It's a sign of how determined they are to keep their operations up and running despite being exposed, which makes them a particularly formidable actor in the espionage area. "These credential attacks us

Over 101,100 compromised OpenAI ChatGPT account credentials have found their way on illicit dark web marketplaces between June 2022 and May 2023, with India alone accounting for 12,632 stolen credentials. The credentials were discovered within information stealer logs made available for sale on the cybercrime underground, Group-IB said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The number of available logs containing compromised ChatGPT accounts reached a peak of 26,802 in May 2023," the Singapore-headquartered company  said . "The Asia-Pacific region has experienced the highest concentration of ChatGPT credentials being offered for sale over the past year." Other countries with the most number of compromised ChatGPT credentials include Pakistan, Brazil, Vietnam, Egypt, the U.S., France, Morocco, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. A further analysis has revealed that the majority of logs containing ChatGPT accounts have been breached by the notorious Raccoon info steal

A proof-of-concept (PoC) has been made available for a security flaw impacting the KeePass password manager that could be exploited to recover a victim's master password in cleartext under specific circumstances. The issue, tracked as  CVE-2023-32784 , impacts KeePass versions 2.x for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and is  expected to be patched  in version 2.54, which is likely to be released early next month. "Apart from the first password character, it is mostly able to recover the password in plaintext," security researcher "vdohney," who discovered the flaw and devised a PoC,  said . "No code execution on the target system is required, just a memory dump." "It doesn't matter where the memory comes from," the researcher added, stating, "it doesn't matter whether or not the workspace is locked. It is also possible to dump the password from RAM after KeePass is no longer running, although the chance of that working goes down w

In today's interconnected world, where organisations regularly exchange sensitive information with customers, partners and employees, secure collaboration has become increasingly vital. However, collaboration can pose a security risk if not managed properly. To ensure that collaboration remains secure, organisations need to take steps to protect their data. Since collaborating is essential for almost any team to succeed, shouldn't you be able to do it securely? Whether you're sharing a Wi-Fi password, a social media account, or the passwords to a financial account, you deserve peace of mind. The risks of not protecting your sensitive data can be disastrous, from data breaches and reputational damage to legal ramifications and financial loss. But let's face it: Secure collaboration can be a real nightmare. Challenges of Secure Collaboration and Password Sharing It's another day in the office, and your team needs to share a ridiculous amount of sensitive informati

Search giant Google on Monday unveiled a major update to its  12-year-old  Authenticator app for Android and iOS with an account synchronization option that allows users to back up their time-based one-time passwords ( TOTPs ) to the cloud. "This change means users are better protected from lockout and that services can rely on users retaining access, increasing both convenience and security," Google's Christiaan Brand  said . The update, which also brings a new icon to the two-factor authenticator (2FA) app, finally brings it in line with Apple's  iCloud Keychain  and addresses a long-standing complaint that it's tied to the device on which it's installed, making it a hassle when switching between phones. Even worse, as Google puts it, users who lose access to their devices completely "lost their ability to sign in to any service on which they'd set up 2FA using Authenticator." The cloud sync feature is optional, meaning users can opt to u

Active Directory (AD) is a powerful authentication and directory service used by organizations worldwide. With this ubiquity and power comes the potential for abuse. Insider threats offer some of the most potentials for destruction. Many internal users have over-provisioned access and visibility into the internal network. Insiders' level of access and trust in a network leads to unique vulnerabilities. Network security often focuses on keeping a threat actor out, not on existing users' security and potential vulnerabilities. Staying on top of potential threats means protecting against inside and outside threats. Active Directory Vulnerabilities From the outside, a properly configured AD domain offers a secure authentication and authorization solution. But with complex social engineering and phishing email attacks, an existing AD user can become compromised. Once inside, threat actors have many options to attack Active Directory. Insecure Devices With "Bring Your Own