Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
TechRadar
TechRadar
Ellen Jennings-Trace

Billions of credentials were stolen from businesses around the world in 2024

Ransomware avast.

  • Flashpoint report outlines a rise in stolen credentials and data breaches in 2024
  • Over 3.2 billion credentials were compromised in 2024
  • Profits from these attacks are fueling the cyber threat landscape

Over 3.2 billion credentials were compromised in 2024, new research has claimed, with these details then used to ‘fuel a number of illegal campaigns’.

Flashpoint’s Global Threat Intelligence Report said the figure represents a 33% spike year-on-year, and of these stolen credentials, an overwhelming 75% of these were obtained through information stealing malware, or ‘infostealers’ - which have now infected over 23 million devices worldwide. The most prolific of these is Redline - infecting 9.9 million hosts in 2024.

Unsurprisingly, 2024 saw a rise in ransomware attacks, with Flashpoint identifying a 10% increase across all sectors, adding to the 84% increase from the previous year - reinforcing reports that 2024 was the worst year for ransomware on record.

A resilient market

When ransomware and infostealer groups are disrupted, the market bounces back remarkably quickly, with new groups and malware strains emerging - indicating a “highly adaptable and resilient threat landscape”.

This makes life much more difficult for security teams and law enforcement, so robust threat monitoring and adaptability will be key for cybersecurity going forward.

A key takeaway from the report is the increase in data breach activity, with 6,670 publicly reported data breaches in 2024 - responsible for the exposure of over 16.8 billion records - putting organizations, customers, and users at risk, and funding cybercriminal organizations around the world.

“We live in interesting times, where technology is both a blessing and a curse,” said Ian Gray, VP of Intelligence at Flashpoint.

“The cybersecurity community will find new challenges in AI-augmented attacks, expanding attack surfaces, and increasingly sophisticated social engineering. Threat actors will find not just the opportunities they seek, but also the heightened scrutiny, improved defenses leveraging AI-tools shepherded by human intelligence, coordinated law enforcement actions, and inevitable consequences that follow.“

You might also like

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.