More 24,6 billionmillions stolen credential pairs are available for sale on the dark web and were exposed last year, the Digital Shadows research team found.
The data recorded from last year reflect an increase of 64 percent one hundred compared to the whole of 2020 (Digital Shadows publishes the data every two years), which shows a significant increase compared to the previous two years before 2020.
Between 2018 and the year the pandemic broke out, the number of credentials for sale increased by 300%, the report said. Of the 24,6 billion credentials up for sale, 6,7 billion are unique, an increase of 1,7 billion over space two years old. This represents a 34 percent increase from 2020.
With all of these credentials available for sale online, attacks on account breaches have multiplied, the report said.
Seventy-five percent of codes access for sale online are not unique, according to Digital Shadows, which warns that we should still be careful.
Preventive account protection, consistent application of good authentication habits, and awareness of one's organizational digital footprint are essential to protecting against account attacks, according to the study.
Everyone should “use multi-factor authentication factors, password managers and complex, unique passwords”.
