A successful, growing company is a prime target for malicious actors trying to steal company credentials, and they will go to great lengths to trick employees into handing over their username and password. Nowadays there are many ways malicious actors can launch a cyberattack on your business, and to help you better secure your business credentials, we have outlined four common ways cyber criminals will try to steal your company credentials.
Launching Phishing Campaigns
Phishing attacks are probably the most well-known attack method used by malicious actors to steal credentials. While some may think of phishing attacks as poorly worded emails that are easy to pick out and discard, this is not always the case. Malicious actors are constantly looking to improve their phishing campaigns to mimic trusted companies that workers will interact with on a daily basis.
On top of this, there are different kinds of phishing attacks than sending out a massive number of emails. Spear phishing, for example, will target a user and attempt to mimic someone they know or a service they are likely to trust. These emails will often be more convincing and trickier to catch if a user isn’t careful.
Watering Hole Strategies
Watering hole attacks are a strategy malicious actors use when they know which sites are commonly used by people in a company. This can be a social media platform that the company uses, a website with resources used by many people in the company, or even a webpage on the corporate intranet. Hackers will attack the legitimate website and inject malicious code that gets delivered to anyone visiting the webpage, and the malware will then attempt to steal company credentials.
Malvertising for Company Credentials
Malicious advertising, often referred to as malvertising, is when a threat actor uses a legitimate appearing advertisement to infect a user’s machine with malware or redirect them to a malicious webpage. Actual advertisements can be targeted and injected with malicious code to lend the attack an air of legitimacy.
Targeting You with Web Attacks
A more direct vector of attack malicious actors can use to try and steal company credentials involves investigating anything a company has public facing on the internet. If hackers can find a vulnerability in a webpage, server, or other company asset, then they can leverage that lapse in security to steal information and perform more complex attacks.
If an attacker gains unauthorized access to a company, then they can move laterally within the network to steal more credentials or sensitive information.
Summary
Whether it be through visiting a trusted webpage or clicking on a seemingly benign advertisement, all the different ways hackers can attempt to steal company credentials may be concerning. However, with the right IT partner, you can get the tools you need to defend against these common attack methods. Our team of specialists at Robinett Consulting want to be that IT partner for you, and we aim to give your business the right advice, training, and tools needed to better defend against credential theft.
