Austin, TX, United States, March nineteenth, 2025, CyberNewsWire
The typical company person now has 146 stolen information linked to their id, a median 12x enhance from earlier estimates, reflecting a surge in holistic id exposures.
SpyCloud, the main id risk safety firm, at present launched its 2025 SpyCloud Annual Identity Exposure Report, highlighting the rise of darknet-exposed id information as the first cyber threat dealing with enterprises at present. As cybercriminals transfer past single information factors and leverage stolen information from numerous sources – breaches, malware and phishes – they’re embracing a extra subtle strategy to id exploitation, and organizations should shift their focus to a complete and holistic protection technique that accounts for the interconnected nature of digital identities.
Holistic Id: The New Cyber Battleground
Organizations have historically centered on securing particular person account credentials, however SpyCloud’s analysis signifies that cybercriminals have expanded their ways past typical account takeover. Attackers now have entry to intensive id information from a number of sources—together with information breaches, infostealer malware infections, phishing campaigns, and combolists—posing a problem for organizations whose safety measures haven’t but tailored to deal with the complete scope of interconnected id exposures holistically.
SpyCloud’s assortment of recaptured darknet information grew 22% up to now 12 months, now encompassing greater than 53.3 billion distinct id information and over 750+ billion whole stolen belongings that at the moment are circulating within the legal underground, fueling identity-based cybercrime. These belongings are an enormous array of non-public {and professional} credentials, session cookies, personally identifiable info (PII), monetary information, IP addresses, nationwide IDs and extra that criminals are weaponizing in assaults in opposition to people and companies.
“The cybersecurity business has spent years defending in opposition to conventional credential-based threats, however the actuality is that attackers have superior as the information they’ve entry to has exploded in quantity,” stated Damon Fleury, Chief Product Officer, SpyCloud. “Id is the final word frontier of cyber threat, with customers’ publicity throughout previous and current, private {and professional} identities the brand new assault floor. It requires organizations to rethink the dangers posed by workers, customers, companions and suppliers.”
Fleury continues, “At SpyCloud, we’ve created holistic id analytics constructed on the business’s largest assortment of recaptured darknet information, enabling our clients to correlate disparate information factors that embody a person’s digital footprint—offering a really holistic view of id threat.”
New Definition for Id Threat Emerges
With the explosion of obtainable id information, attackers can now piece collectively historic and present-day information to bypass safety boundaries. Historically, cybersecurity groups had been solely in a position to see a fraction of a person’s darknet exposures – primarily solely the uncovered belongings tied to a company id – which weren’t complete nor in correlation with different exposures. SpyCloud’s report exhibits that a person’s id publicity is extra expansive than conventional cyber threat instruments would point out; in truth, it’s a sprawling net of interrelated belongings that present cybercriminals with a roadmap to take advantage of vulnerabilities and the keys to unlock invaluable entry.
- Of explicit concern for companies, a single company person now has an common of 146 stolen information linked to their id – throughout 13 distinctive emails and 141 credential pairs (a username or electronic mail and its related password) per company person, which highlights how attackers correlate historic information to uncover energetic enterprise entry factors.
- Within the shopper realm, the numbers are even larger with 229 information per shopper, often together with uncovered PII corresponding to full names, dates of delivery, and cellphone numbers, in addition to Social Safety/ID numbers, addresses, and bank card or financial institution info. Shopper publicity averages 27 distinctive emails and 227 credential pairs per person.
“The record-breaking breaches of 2024, together with the Mom of All Breaches (MOAB) and the Nationwide Public Information Breach, together with the rising use of infostealing malware and artful phishing campaigns illustrate simply how huge the pool of uncovered id information has develop into,” stated Trevor Hilligoss, Senior Vice President of Safety Analysis, SpyCloud Labs at SpyCloud. “By understanding how cybercriminals mixture stolen information and the brand new ways and tendencies they’re leveraging to imagine much more invaluable info and entry, organizations can take proactive steps to mitigate identity-based threats from these massive underground sources earlier than they escalate.”
Extra Report Findings:
- 17.3 billion cookies had been recaptured from malware-infected gadgets, enabling attackers to bypass MFA and hijack energetic person periods.
- 548 million credentials had been exfiltrated by way of infostealer malware, highlighting the rising position of stealthy, focused information theft in enterprise assaults.
- 3.1 billion passwords had been recaptured in 2024, marking a 125% enhance from the earlier 12 months.
- 70% of customers whose credentials had been uncovered in breaches final 12 months reused beforehand compromised passwords, considerably growing their threat of account takeover assaults – a 9+ leap from 2023.
- 44.8 billion PII belongings – a 39% enhance from 2023 are opening the door for brand spanking new fraudulent actions.
- 97% of recaptured phished information logs in 2024, from well-liked phishing-as-a-service (PHaaS) platforms like ONNX, included an electronic mail handle and 64% had an related IP handle, giving criminals direct alternatives to perpetrate because the person and make lateral actions inside a corporation.
- Within the public sector, SpyCloud recaptured 127K .gov credentials and noticed a 67% all-time password reuse price – a rise of 13% over the earlier 12 months – highlighting persistent safety dangers for our federal businesses and nationwide safety.
Evolving Cybersecurity Methods
The findings spotlight that cybercriminals are transferring well-beyond their very own legacy ways and companies should acknowledge that conventional defenses are now not sufficient. SpyCloud’s strategy leverages holistic id analytics, powered by the business’s largest assortment of recaptured darknet information, to assist organizations correlate disparate id components and shore up id risk safety measures, whereas mitigating threat extra successfully.
For additional insights, the complete 2025 SpyCloud Id Publicity Report is offered here.
About SpyCloud
SpyCloud transforms recaptured darknet information to disrupt cybercrime. Its automated holistic id risk safety options leverage superior analytics to proactively stop ransomware and account takeover, safeguard worker and shopper accounts, and speed up cybercrime investigations. SpyCloud’s information from breaches, malware-infected gadgets, and profitable phishes additionally powers many well-liked darkish net monitoring and id theft safety choices. Prospects embrace seven of the Fortune 10, together with lots of of worldwide enterprises, mid-sized corporations, and authorities businesses worldwide. Headquartered in Austin, TX, SpyCloud is dwelling to greater than 200 cybersecurity consultants whose mission is to guard companies and customers from the stolen id information criminals are utilizing to focus on them now.
To study extra and see insights, customers can go to spycloud.com.
Contact
Emily Brown
REQ on behalf of SpyCloud
[email protected]
