What Is Credential Theft?

Credential theft occurs when malicious actors steal login details and use them to access services or applications. Threat actors then steadily elevate their privileges or access bank accounts, e-commerce websites, and other platforms as a customer. Credential theft can cause significant financial losses for victims (both companies and the affected customers). When used in the healthcare industry, it can result in the loss of Protected Health Information (PHI). Hackers leverage several techniques to credential access, including brute force attacks, phishing, site spoofing, or injecting malicious code onto a login or checkout page.