Not a flash in the pan but a long term trend, cybercriminals are after big volumes of credentials. Passwords, usernames, email addresses and other forms of identification used by customers, employees or third parties to get into systems or sensitive data. This is called corporate credential theft. Cyber attackers have more tools to harvest millions of victim credentials.
Consider this. A company uses social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (now X) for their marketing efforts. They are careful about what they post about the company but a threat actor can still gather or extract information, insights or practical details. Sooner or later they will identify who are the regular posters, and the time frames. From there they can narrow down to a few potential victims and dig deeper to find their weaknesses. Most attackers use some form of business email compromise (BEC) to impersonate high level corporate officials, employees, lawyers or business partners to trick people into sending money or sensitive data.
In the end, the best defense is a combination of good user practices and strong technical controls, focusing on multi-factor authentication, unique passwords and passphrases, and regular software updates. Passwords themselves are very vulnerable to attack because people use weak passwords that can be guessed or are already compromised. This means they end up on breach lists which are then used over and over in password attacks.
The Hidden Costs Of Poor Cyber Hygiene
The internet is full of hackers waiting to get into your computers. Most breaches don’t make the headlines and the vast majority of businesses don’t even know they’ve been breached until the damage is done. Passwords are the weak link in the security chain. Despite increased awareness of cybersecurity risks, weak passwords persist because of easily remembered credentials, underestimating the risk of attack and not understanding what makes a strong password. The hidden costs of poor password management for businesses include but are not limited to:
Direct Financial Loss
Poor password management costs millions of dollars. Whether it’s cracking/determining a password or logging in with a known compromised password, attackers get into your systems or data and can do fraudulent activities such as bank account manipulation. Managing account lockouts requires a lot of IT helpdesk resources.
Operational Disruption
One password is all it takes for a ransomware group to wipe out your business. The goal is to disrupt business operations not extract data, so you’re forced to restore access faster than protect information. By encrypting critical systems and blocking workflows, the attackers create leverage to demand payment.
Reputational Damage
Losing valuable data can have a long lasting and devastating impact on your finances, customer base, ability to grow and reputation. A breach will discourage customers from using your business in the future. It’s seen as a failure of your responsibility to protect their data so don’t be surprised if they go to the competition.
Regulatory And Legal Penalties
If a breach is caused by poor password hygiene, regulators will consider it a failure to comply with GDPR (EU) or HIPAA (US healthcare). Beyond regulatory fines you may face lawsuits from customers or partners whose data was compromised due to poor password protection.
The Business Case for a Password Manager
Passwords are vulnerable because employees use them across personal and professional platforms, and they follow patterns and themes when created, using seasons, musicians, sports teams and TV shows, to name a few. A business password manager provides the perfect balance of security and simplicity: it stores and manages all your credentials. It generates strong, random passwords that don’t need to be remembered. When you want to access a system, website or application, the password manager fills in the login boxes for you. The data stored on it can only be decrypted on a verified device associated with you.
Password managers have been recommended for years to improve online security, but adoption is low, which can be attributed to the lack of perceived need and the hassle of changing from existing habits. There are three types of password managers: browser-based, cloud-based and desktop-based password managers. Some password managers are multi-platform, meaning they’re not tied to one environment, which offers several benefits for individuals and businesses such as resilience against attacks, central management and compliance support. Each solution has a free basic version with a full feature set and paid versions with extra features.
You can’t use a password manager if you don’t follow password hygiene best practices; you’re only solving part of the problem. For example, if your master password is weak, the entire vault is vulnerable and malicious actors get access to your usernames, credit card numbers, secure notes and other sensitive data. Equally, if you reuse credentials or fall for phishing attacks, the password manager can’t protect you from stolen logins being used elsewhere. Everyone in your organization should do regular cybersecurity training, including you, to create a self-aware culture to prevent human error.
Conclusion
Despite decades of security campaigns telling users to create strong passwords, many individuals and businesses still use weak, reused or easily guessable credentials, which shows the limits of education and proves we need technical controls like password managers. When used correctly, tools deliver results. Technology is only as good as its configuration, so don’t use a password manager without training, and leave staff members unaware of how to use features like data sharing.