Inside The Mind Of A Hacker: Stolen Identity To Full-Blown Data Breach

Of course, it is critically important to understand cyber-criminals – and ways in which they target victims, or what you might do to mitigate risk and make their mission a bit more complicated.

Today’s cyber-criminal, however, may not exactly grab the bait, as they are increasingly sophisticated and hovering just near, or inside, the network, using automation tools to streamline their advances.

A privileged account, however, could be a cache, a true gold mine, for them. Compromising one of these accounts can, therefore, be the difference between a simple network breach and a “cyber-catastrophe.”

When a single system is compromised, it is typically easier to mitigate, isolate and eradicate the risk and restore control. Yet, when a privileged account is breached, it can lead to a major disaster. That’s because when the privileged account is hacked, it allows the attacker to impersonate a trusted employee or system and carry out malicious activity without being detected as an intruder.

Once attackers compromise a privileged account, they can typically roam at will through an IT environment to steal information and wreak havoc.

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In a recent Thycotic blog post, the company’s Chief Security Scientist, Joseph Carson, wrote: “One of the major reasons that Privileged Access Management is the #1 priority for organizations in 2018 is that it saves them time and money—both of which can go back into their cyber security efforts—and it enables the CISO to get more done with the same budget.”

He continued: “The right privileged access management (PAM) solution makes employees more productive by giving them access to systems and applications faster and more securely.  Implementing a PAM solution secures access to sensitive systems and reduces the risk of getting compromised by disclosed passwords on the dark web.”

The specific solution is also a positive force within the enterprise and can assist employees – with measurable results.

Carson wrote, “CISOs are looking for ways for employees to have a better experience with security, and the best way to do this is to implement a robust yet simple PAM solution.  This will help remove one of the biggest causes of cyber fatigue and will generate new passwords and rotate them when they are stolen or compromised, which these days could be as often as every week.”

In his post, Carson said that the PAM solution enables organizations to manage and secure privileged accounts to meet access-control requirements for a good number of today’s regulations.

“This is why Privileged Access Management helps organizations fast track their way to becoming compliant,” he added.

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With regard to robust cyber-attacks, the PAM solution also enables you to quickly audit privileged accounts that have been used recently, discover whether passwords have been changed and determine which applications have been executed.

To better understand today’s threat landscape, as well as the rationale of a black hat, the Cyber Security Hub will be conducting a webinar on Sept. 12, 2018 at 12 p.m. ET, entitled, “Inside The Mind Of A Hacker - From Stolen Identity To Full Blown Data Breach.”

Cyber Security Hub Editor, Dan Gunderman, will be conducting a Q&A-style session in which Carson will answer pressing questions on the topic – all of which are poised to assist today’s enterprise professional.

In the session, Thycotic’s Carson will describe the anatomy of a privileged account hack, show how cyber-criminals target their victims and explain what you can do to reduce your risk and prevent abuse of your critical information.

So, to understand the full scope of today’s PAM solutions, it is best to grasp the reasoning of a threat actor attempting to compromise these accounts. Attend the September webinar for quality insight on the topic! You can register by clicking here.

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