The Credential Crisis: How Stolen Credentials Defeat Modern Security

Preventing credential compromise and surviving compromised credentials is not theoretically impossible but is difficult in practice and shows no sign of getting easier.

Credentials

The modern cyber use of the word ‘credentials’ stems from the Latin ‘creder’: to believe. As society evolved into the Middle Ages, the early notion of ‘Believe me. I am Socrates’ became, ‘Believe this physical letter that proves I am Socrates.’ Those physical letters became known as ‘credentialis’, or a paper that authenticated the bearer.

In today’s cyber world, we call that paper ‘credentials. It is no longer physical, but virtual, and the meaning has expanded to ‘you can trust in the belief that I am who I say I am and you can treat me as such: I am Socrates.’ Socrates is the identity, and the credentials prove it.

Cyber credentials

In cyber today, credentials are largely categorized in two major groups: those for human...

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