Updated on November 30, 2023.
You can prevent credential stuffing attacks by using strong and unique passwords, enabling MFA, using a password manager, investing in a dark web monitoring tool and staying educated on emerging cyber threats.
Credential stuffing often results in account takeovers – a type of identity theft in which a cybercriminal gains unauthorized access and takes over someone’s online account. An account takeover locks the user out of their account and allows a cybercriminal to use the account for malicious purposes. To protect your online accounts and identity, you need to prevent credential stuffing and other types of cyber attacks.
Continue reading to learn more about credential stuffing attacks and how to prevent them from happening to you.
What Is Credential Stuffing?
Credential stuffing is a cyber attack strategy in which a cybercriminal uses stolen credentials to attempt to gain unauthorized access to multiple user accounts. This is often successful because of users reusing the same login credentials across multiple accounts. A cybercriminal will steal one set of login credentials through a previous cyber attack or security breach, or was able to get them on the dark web. Once they have a verified set of login credentials, they use a program that inputs the stolen login credentials across thousands of websites and applications to compromise as many accounts as they can in a matter of minutes. Once the cybercriminal has compromised your accounts, they can use your accounts to commit identity theft, credit card fraud and more.
Credential Stuffing vs Password Spraying: What’s the Difference?
Although credential stuffing and password spraying are both examples of brute force attacks, the two methods are different. Credential stuffing uses an already verified set of login credentials while password spraying tries to match usernames with commonly used passwords to get a verified set of login credentials.
A credential stuffing attack highlights the risks of password reuse. In this case, a cybercriminal gets one set of compromised credentials and uses that username and password pairing to attempt to gain access to other applications and websites.
Password spraying is when a cybercriminal uses a single commonly used password and pairs it with a list of usernames in an attempt to gain access to accounts. The cybercriminal will move on to another commonly used password if it does not get a match. If a user has weak or predictable passwords, their accounts are at risk of being compromised.
Five Ways to Prevent Credential Stuffing Attacks
Keeper’s 2022 US Password Practice report found that 56% of users reuse the same password, showing how effective credential stuffing attacks can be. Don’t let yourself fall victim to credential stuffing attacks. Use these five tips to prevent credential stuffing attacks from happening to you.
1. Create Strong Passwords
Credential stuffing relies on reusing login credentials across multiple accounts to gain unauthorized access. To avoid falling victim to credential stuffing attacks, you should use strong and unique passwords for all of your accounts. By using a unique password for each of your accounts, you can prevent having multiple accounts being taken over. Strong passwords make it difficult for cybercriminals to crack your passwords and gain access to your accounts.
A strong password is a unique and random combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters that is at least 16 characters long. It should omit any personal information, sequential letters or numbers and commonly used dictionary words.
2. Use Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a security measure that requires one or more additional authentication factors. To gain access to your accounts, you need to provide your login credentials and an additional form of identification. MFA ensures that only authorized users can gain access to your accounts. Even if your login credentials were compromised, a cybercriminal could not get into your account because it is protected by MFA, preventing credential stuffing attacks from successfully taking over your accounts.
3. Use a password manager
A password manager is a tool that securely stores and manages your passwords and personal information in an encrypted vault. A password manager allows you to easily access all of your unique passwords in one place. It also prevents credential stuffing attacks by identifying any reused passwords. Most password managers will prompt you to create unique passwords using a built-in password generator.
Cybercriminals can find login credentials on the dark web and use them for credential stuffing attacks. You should use a dark web monitoring tool to help prevent credential stuffing attacks. Dark web monitoring is a process that scans the dark web and alerts you if your personal information is compromised. With a dark web monitoring tool, you can check to see if your login credentials are on the dark web and change them before a credential stuffing attack occurs.
5. Stay educated on cyber threats
Cyber threats such as phishing and malware are tactics cybercriminals use to steal login credentials from users. Cybercriminals then use the stolen login credentials to initiate credential stuffing attacks. You need to stay educated on cyber threats to protect your login credentials. By learning how to recognize cyber threats, you can avoid falling victim to these types of attacks and prevent credential stuffing attacks.
How Keeper® Protects You From Credential Stuffing Attacks
Credential stuffing is a dangerous type of cyber attack you need to avoid to keep your online accounts safe from cybercriminals. By using strong and unique passwords for each of your accounts, you can prevent credential stuffing attacks. The best way to manage your passwords and avoid reusing them is by using a password manager. A password manager keeps track of all of your passwords and ensures that they are strong and unique.
Keeper Security offers a password manager that securely stores your passwords within an AES-256 encrypted password vault. Keeper Password Manager is protected by zero-trust and zero-knowledge encryption which ensures that only you have access to your data. It also has additional features available such as BreachWatch®, a dark web monitoring tool that alerts you of compromised passwords found on the dark web.
Sign up for a free trial of Keeper Password Manager to prevent credential stuffing attacks from happening to you.