CyberScoop reports that information-stealing malware has been leveraged to exfiltrate 2.1 billion credentials or almost two-thirds of all stolen credentials in 2024 as the total number of pilfered credentials increased by 33% from 2023.
Twenty-three million devices and hosts worldwide were compromised with infostealers last year, most of which were on Windows-based corporate systems, according to a report from Flashpoint.
Redline was the most prolific infostealer strain last year, accounting for 43% of total infections, followed by RisePro, StealC, Lumma Stealer, and Meta Stealer.
Additional findings revealed that the widespread Snowflake breach last April, which impacted AT&T, Ticketmaster, and other organizations, was facilitated by credentials obtained by the Vidar, Lumma, Meta, RisePro, Redline, and Racoon stealers.
"Infostealers are effective tools due to their low costs, ease of use, and accessibility. Inherently, this is a force multiplier as it can allow a single threat actor to compromise an organization at scale, without them needing to have any deep technical knowledge," said Flashpoint Vice President of Intelligence Ian Gray, who warned of additional breaches and ransomware attacks that will be fueled by infostealers this year.
