The 2023 data from Enzoic for Active Directory Lite data from 2023 offers a revealing glimpse into the current state of cybersecurity, highlighting a significant increase in risk factors that lead to data breaches.
The free password auditor has been at the forefront of monitoring and analyzing user data to identify vulnerabilities and trends within environments that can inform better security practices.
Identification of Compromised Passwords: The password auditor checks user accounts against a comprehensive database of known compromised passwords.
This feature is instrumental in preventing data breaches by ensuring that users are not employing passwords already exposed in previous breaches.
Insight into Administrator Accounts: Enzoic for AD Lite offers a detailed view of administrator accounts, ensuring that these high-level accounts can be given the proper level of attention.
Detection of Accounts Without Passwords: Alarmingly, some user accounts may lack passwords entirely, a significant security risk.
Analysis of Weak Passwords: Weak passwords are a common entry point for cyber-attacks.
Monitoring Shared Passwords: Shared passwords across multiple accounts amplify security risks.
Enzoic for AD Lite can detect and report instances of password sharing, enabling administrators to enforce better password hygiene.
Accounts with Non-Expiring Passwords: While modern frameworks recommend organizations do not have passwords set to expire, this is a useful data point for organizations relying on older policies or niche compliance standards.
The analysis of 2023 data from over 8 million user accounts scanned by Enzoic reveals a concerning pattern: nearly 15% accounts were found to be using unsafe passwords.
This finding is a reminder of the ongoing battle against data breaches and the need for organizations to continually monitor passwords in their environment for compromise as recommended by NIST. This significant figure stresses the prevalence of compromised passwords as a leading cause of data breaches, as reported by industry giants Verizon and IBM. One notable trend is the persistent increase in users with duplicate passwords at nearly passwords at nearly 30% of all users scanned.
Another concerning observation is that roughly 10% of users scanned in 2023 had expired passwords.
Alarmingly, the average number of users without passwords per domain surged from virtually none in previous years to thirteen in 2023.
Overall, there has been a consistent rise in the number of users with compromised or weak passwords, reaching an average of 199 per domain in 2023 compared to 192 per domain in 2022.
This increase underscores the need for stronger password policies and more stringent security practices.
Measures like prohibiting the use of passwords that are compromised or commonly found in cracking dictionaries are essential steps in mitigating this risk.
Interestingly, the trends in compromised and unsafe passwords mirror broader industry patterns.
The increase in duplicate passwords and the alarming number of accounts without any password security, combined with over a million stale accounts, underscore the need for stronger cybersecurity measures across all industries.
Its capabilities in identifying compromised, weak, and shared passwords, along with accounts that have security oversights, make it an indispensable part of any cybersecurity tool stack.
This Cyber News was published on securityboulevard.com. Publication date: Mon, 22 Jan 2024 20:43:05 +0000