• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Orange reports major cyberattack, warns of service disruptions

 | 

Hackers leak images and comments from women dating safety app Tea

 | 

Pro-Ukraine hacktivists claim cyberattack on Russian Airline Aeroflot that caused the cancellation of +100 flights

 | 

Seychelles Commercial Bank Reported Cybersecurity Incident

 | 

Microsoft uncovers macOS flaw allowing bypass TCC protections and exposing sensitive data

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Cisco ISE and PaperCut NG/MF flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Critical WordPress Post SMTP plugin flaw exposes 200K+ sites to full takeover

 | 

Scattered Spider targets VMware ESXi in using social engineering

 | 

China-linked group Fire Ant exploits VMware and F5 flaws since early 2025

 | 

Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber Crime
  • Hacking
  • Reports
  • 88 percent of company networks vulnerable to privileged account hacks

88 percent of company networks vulnerable to privileged account hacks

Pierluigi Paganini November 11, 2015

A research published by CyberArk Labs focuses on targeted attacks against organizational networks, analyzing hackers’ methods, tools and techniques.

Bad news for network administrators, according to the security company CyberArk, 88 percent of networks are susceptible to privileged account hacks.

The report published by CyberArk entitled “Analyzing Real-World Exposure to Windows Credential Theft Attacks” reveals that corporate Windows networks are most of the times poorly configured and expose credentials for privileged user accounts. The analysis analyzes various credential abuse methods, including Kerberos attacks, Overpass-the-Hash and Pass-the-Hash attacks, providing suggestions for their mitigation.

The experts have searched for vulnerabilities and configuration issued that exposed credentials to hackers. They focused the investigation on the theft attacks, events that cause the exposure of the user’s credentials that could be used to log in impersonating the victim to exfiltrate data from the targeted machine.

The researchers at CyberArk assessed 51 corporate networks relying on Windows systems and discovered in over 88% of the cases  “highly threatening machines” in the network’s architecture. The experts highlighted that 40 percent of Windows hosts could lead to a complete compromise if they were hacked.

“Every Windows network, no matter how large or small, could potentially be compromised by attackers through theft or privileged credentials,” states the report. 

targeting networks 2

The worst scenario occurs when the attacker access credentials for privileged accounts, let us think to network administrators and use them to lateral movement within the targeted organization.

Each machine is a mine of information for attackers that could gather them to penetrate more deeply targeted networks. Only 12 percent of the networks analyzed by the experts were classified at a“low exposure,” which are networks where less than 10 percent of the hosts had a high risk of being compromised.

Similar techniques were adopted by threat actors in the wild, such as the notorious cases of the giants of the retail industry, Target and Home Depot.

The report also mentions the abuse of privileged service accounts ordinary used to execute a number of functions implemented by the operating system.

“We’ve seen similar credential theft methods as the basis for major attacks across a number of organization,” said Andrey Dulkin, director of cyber innovation at CyberArk Labs. “Identifying these machines and securing the associated privileged credentials against theft and exploitation is a critical step in securing against advanced cyber attacks.”

Enjoy the report.

 

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – hacking, organization networks)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Hacking networks targeted attacks Windows

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 29, 2025
Orange reports major cyberattack, warns of service disruptions
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 29, 2025
Hackers leak images and comments from women dating safety app Tea
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Orange reports major cyberattack, warns of service disruptions

    Security / July 29, 2025

    Hackers leak images and comments from women dating safety app Tea

    Data Breach / July 29, 2025

    Pro-Ukraine hacktivists claim cyberattack on Russian Airline Aeroflot that caused the cancellation of +100 flights

    Hacktivism / July 29, 2025

    Seychelles Commercial Bank Reported Cybersecurity Incident

    Data Breach / July 29, 2025

    Microsoft uncovers macOS flaw allowing bypass TCC protections and exposing sensitive data

    Hacking / July 29, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT