Privileged Credential Abuse

The #1 Attack Vector for External and Internal Hackers

Hackers love privileged credentials (accounts) because they provide unrestricted access. IT and applications administrators use privileged credentials to complete critical tasks, but these credentials traditionally also provide unrestricted access to data, including sensitive data.

“No one has more access to critical resources and sensitive information than privileged users, which means no one poses a greater security risk.” CSO Online, January 2018

Because administrative tasks require powerful access, privileged credentials are the most powerful tools hackers can exploit. And they do just that in every advanced attack.

“… stealing and exploiting privileged accounts is a critical success factor for attackers in 100% of all advanced attacks …” InfoSecurity Magazine, July 2014

The scope of privileged credential attacks is astounding. The power of privileged credentials often enable attackers to sit silently in networks for many months, observing activity and probing for sensitive data, before an attack occurs.

“It’s your worst nightmare, and a cyber attacker’s dream come true: the credentials of a privileged user getting stolen or otherwise compromised. After all, privileged users can go practically anywhere and do anything in your network as they go about the business of configuring servers and systems and setting security policies.” CSO Online, January 2018

Privileged credential attacks are by no means new. They have been happening for many years. The majority of privileged credential attacks are looking to exploit sensitive data.

There is one fundamental reason why privileged attacks have been so difficult to detect and prevent – the tight integration of data security into applications.

Cord3 separates data security from applications and that’s why Cord3 can Stop Privileged Credential Abuse. Separate to Elevate.