GEC NEWS WIREDigital Shadows released its Compromised Credentials research paper which analyzed the largest 1,000 companies listed on the Forbes Global 2000. The report found that 97 percent of those companies, spanning all businesses sectors and geographical regions, had leaked credentials publicly available online, many of them from third-party breaches. Credentials for over 5.5 million employees of the world’s largest companies have been found online, as large-scale data leaks become the norm according to the report. The top breaches were from social media platforms with LinkedIn, MySpace and Tumblr breaches being responsible for a respective 30 percent, 21 percent and 8 percent of the total credentials.
“Data breaches are no longer an aberration; they are the norm. With credentials for over 5.5 million employees of the world’s largest companies having been found online and with 97 percent of the top 1,000 companies suffering from credential compromise, it is clear that, irrespective of size, industry or geography, the vast majority of organizations have credentials exposed online. Compromised credentials hold significant value for cybercriminals as the information can be used for botnet spam lists, extortion attempts, spear-phishing and account takeover,” said Chris Brown, Digital Shadows VP EMEA and APJ.
