back to article Orgs are having a major identity crisis while crims reap the rewards

Identity-related threats pose an increasing risk to those protecting networks because attackers – ranging from financially motivated crime gangs and nation-state backed crews – increasingly prefer to log in using stolen credentials instead of exploiting vulnerabilities or social engineering. In two separate reports published …

  1. that one in the corner Silver badge

    Social engineering, the second oldest profession

    Making phone calls, convincing people to bypass the mechanical security...

    Have we become so focussed on the clever coding and machine based security that we've been forgetting to train everyone to look out for the old tricks? Human Factors Engineering, if you will.

    (Ok, some of it is just good old fashioned laxity - not using your TFA - which is just the back-end Human Factors kicking in)

  2. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Working from ... North Korea?

    > 71 percent year-over-year increase in the volume of attacks using valid credentials in 2023

    One wonders what proportion of those stolen credentials were from people with elevated privileges working in their home, rather than at their company's premises

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: Working from ... North Korea?

      were from people with elevated privileges working in their home

      As in people routinely letting strangers in to their home and let them play with their laptop?

      Seems like its more likely for this kind of attack to happen in the office, where there is a lot of people and roaming strangers don't raise eyebrows.

      People in their homes are more protective (it's their home after all!) vs being in the office (more lax attitude, they don't own anything there).

      1. Pete 2 Silver badge

        Re: Working from ... North Korea?

        > As in people routinely letting strangers in to their home ...

        Electronically? Yes. Spot on.

    2. Mike007 Silver badge

      Re: Working from ... North Korea?

      Probably few if they are doing it correctly.

      However working from home on a personal device instead of a dedicated company device... Or using a company device for personal use, which is more likely if it is on your desk at home.

  3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    It requires a bit of thinking about what's an identity in terms of system access.

    Phone numbers and email addresses are simply hopeful but uncertain means of communicating with a person. There's no guarantee that the person in control of either is the person you think it is. Phones can be lost or stolen, numbers swapped to other SIMs and the phone might also be the endpoint for email. Using either for TFA is less of a security feature than your bank or mine assumes.

    Personal emails are re-used for all sorts of site that demand email as an identifier as well as means of communication. People being people they'll also reuse the password. The only place an email address makes sense as a login ID is the email account; even then it's best to have a number of addresses each feeding the mailbox which is the actual login ID.

  4. IncreasinglyDisaffected
    FAIL

    Is that really it's name?

    Wait... X-Force? Haven't they learned anything at all from Deadpool?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is that really it's name?

      No, but everyone that I knew at X-Force was on cocaine.

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