Cybercrime is undergoing a seismic shift, and businesses relying on Microsoft products must take notice.
The latest CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report has revealed a rather concerning trend as cybercriminals are increasingly abandoning their traditional malware-based attacks in favour of rather more nefarious identity exploitation methods.
According to the report, three out of every four cyberattacks now use stolen credentials rather than malicious software.
This change is introducing us to a troubling new reality, one where businesses with otherwise excellent defence mechanisms are now faced with an attacker who is able to gain access using legitimate credentials, giving them free rein within a company’s network.
“You may have really locked down environments for untrusted external threats, but as soon as you look like a legitimate user, you’ve got the keys to the kingdom,” said Elia Zaitsev, CTO at CrowdStrike.
With a booming underground market for stolen credentials and the rise of AI-driven phishing campaigns, identity is fast becoming the primary battlefield in cybersecurity.
This raises a pressing question for business owners: if an attacker doesn’t need malware to infiltrate a network, how can they be stopped?
Attackers Moving Faster Than Defenders
Speed is one of the most important factors in combating modern cyberattacks.
The CrowdStrike report uncovered the fastest recorded breakout time, which is the time it takes for an attacker to move across a network after gaining access.
To give you an idea of just how fast modern attackers have become, CrowdStrike reported a speed of just 2 minutes and 7 seconds. This means that by the time a business detects a breach, it may already be too late.
Unlike traditional threats, identity-based attacks do not rely on malicious payloads that can be detected by security software.
Instead, cyberattackers are using legitimate credentials to get through the network undetected, using what is known as “living-off-the-land” techniques which means they use built-in system tools to avoid raising the alarm.
Microsoft users should be particularly vigilant, as these techniques exploit widely used authentication and remote access tools. Without the right identity protection measures in place, businesses could find themselves vulnerable to silent intrusions that bypass conventional security.
DDoS Attacks Are Growing in Scale and Complexity
Aside from the worrying rise in identity-based threats, businesses also face an increasing risk from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Cloudflare recently halted the largest DDoS attack on record, an unprecedented 5.6 terabit-per-second (Tbps) attack targeting an East Asian telecoms provider. The attack, launched by a Mirai-variant botnet comprising 13 000 hijacked devices, dwarfed the previous record of 3.8 Tbps.
DDoS attacks, which flood websites and online services with overwhelming traffic, are becoming both larger and more frequent.
Microsoft itself fell victim to a major DDoS incident in July 2024, leading to nearly 10 hours of Azure cloud service downtime. Cloudflare’s data shows that the number of DDoS attacks exceeding 1 Tbps surged by 1,885% in just one quarter!
Protecting your Business From Identity-Based Cybercrimes
The days of relying solely on malware detection and perimeter defences are well and truly over.
Attackers no longer need sophisticated exploits when they can simply buy credentials online, phish employees, or manipulate AI-driven authentication systems.
For Microsoft-dependent businesses, now is the time to start adopting zero-trust security frameworks, implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all accounts, and continuously monitoring user behaviour to pick up potential problems before they escalate.
The harsh reality is that failing to prioritise your identity security will leave you defenceless against modern cyber threats.
As cybercriminals continue to innovate, outdated security measures may no longer be enough. If you are worried that your digital defences are no longer up to the task, you need the help of an IT company, like 24/7 IT Services. We provide a wide range of IT related services including IT Security Solutions, VoIP and Managed IT Support. Contact us today for a consultation.
