Researchers with Outpost24 are reporting over 31,000 corporate credentials for many of the UK’s leading FTSE 100 firms on the dark web. These are the 100 biggest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange by market capitalization. The researchers used their threat monitoring and auditing tool Blueliv to search dark web sites for the breached credentials.
Key findings from stolen and leaked credentials study:
- The majority (81%) of the companies within the FTSE 100 had at least one credential compromised and exposed on the dark web
- 31,135 total stolen and leaked credentials detected for FTSE 100 companies, with 38% disclosed on the underground in the past 12 months
- Nearly half (42%) of FTSE 100 companies have more than 500 compromised credentials exposed on the dark web
- Up to 20% of credentials are stolen via malware infection and stealers
- 11% disclosed in the last 3 months (21% in the last 6 months and over 68% has been exposed for 12months+)
- Over 60% of stolen credentials came from 3 industries – IT/Telecom (23%), Energy and Utility (22%) and Finance (21%)
- IT/Telecoms industry is the most at risk with the highest total amount (7,303) and average stolen credentials per company (730), they are most affected by malware infection and have the most amount of stolen credentials disclosed in the last 3 months
- On average, healthcare has the highest number of stolen credentials per company (485) from data breach as they found themselves increasingly in the cybercriminals’ crosshairs since the pandemic
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