Attacker tools and workflows are getting more and more automated. They are able to quickly integrate a variety of attack techniques and targets to automate wider-scale compromises and exploitation. This increase in automated capabilities applies to all phases of the attacker methodologies.

For example, modern attacker and bot-net tools can integrate stolen credentials use (“credential stuffing”) into a wider variety of approaches. They can automate the work of the attackers when they find a successful login. They can also try those credentials against a wider set of targets, including various e-commerce and popular social media sites. Essentially, this makes exploitation of stolen credentials significantly easier for an attacker, and potentially, more damaging to the victims whose credentials have leaked.

Stolen credentials and the tools to use them are evolving rapidly, and a significant amount of innovation and evolution are expected in these tool sets over the next year to 18 months. Entire platforms given to user emulation and capable of doing en masse correlation of stolen user data across breach sets are what I expect to see in the next year or so. When these tools emerge, new economies of scale for online identity theft will quickly emerge, raising both awareness and criticality of the problem.

Folks at various security organizations, including Akamai, are also tracking the problem. (https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/behind-the-botnet-akamais-tony-lauro-on-tackling-real-world-credential-stuffing-attacks) Robust defenses against these automated platforms are going to be needed, and it will place significant stress on organizations who lack mature security programs with advanced visibility and analytics capabilities.

If you’d like some assistance preparing for these types of automated attacks or would like to discuss the potential impacts they may have on your organization, feel free to get in touch (https://microsolved.com/contact) or give us a call at 614-351-1237.