Every day, attackers attempt to gain access to the systems of organizations worldwide. What surprises many people is that they rarely need to start with a sophisticated technical attack. In most cases, they begin somewhere else: with identities. Accounts, credentials, and access rights are at least as valuable to hackers as an unpatched system — and often far easier to exploit.
In this article, you will learn step by step why digital identities are so attractive to attackers, how they obtain them, and what happens next. We conclude with practical guidelines for better protecting identities within your organization.
What exactly is a digital identity?
A digital identity is the combination of data that a system uses to determine who you are and what you are allowed to do. In its simplest form, this consists of a username and a password. But in practice, a digital identity is much broader.
Consider an employee who logs into a cloud environment such as Microsoft 365. That employee has an account, but that account also has roles, rights, and permissions: access to certain folders, the ability to create other users, or the right to approve invoices. All of these elements together form the digital identity of that person within the organization.
In addition to human identities, there are also so-called service accounts and machine identities: accounts used by applications, scripts, or automated processes. These accounts often have broad permissions and are monitored less closely than employee accounts. That makes them especially interesting for attackers.
- Employee user accounts, including their roles and permissions
- Administrator accounts with elevated privileges
- Service accounts used by applications
- Machine identities in cloud platforms such as Azure or AWS
Why are identities the preferred target of attackers?
Now that you know what a digital identity entails, you also better understand why attackers are so focused on them. A stolen identity gives an attacker something that technical exploits rarely offer: legitimately appearing access.
When an attacker exploits a vulnerability in software, it almost always leaves traces in log files and security systems. But when that same attacker logs in using the valid credentials of an employee, they appear at first glance to be a regular user. Security systems that detect anomalous behavior then have a much harder time raising the alarm.
Moreover, whoever holds the identity holds the rights that come with it. An attacker who obtains the identity of an IT administrator potentially gains access to servers, cloud environments, backup systems, and sensitive customer data. This makes identity-based attacks particularly efficient from an attacker’s perspective.
A useful analogy: stealing a key is far quieter than breaking in through a window. And if that key also grants access to multiple floors of a building, the appeal is even greater. The same applies to digital identities and cybersecurity identity management.
How hackers obtain identities
There are multiple ways in which attackers manage to acquire digital identities. Not all of these methods are equally technical, which is precisely what makes them effective against organizations that invest only in technical security.
Phishing and social engineering
The most common method is phishing: an attacker sends a fake email that appears to be a legitimate message from a bank, a colleague, or a well-known service. The recipient clicks a link and enters their credentials on a fake page. The attacker now has the credentials and can log in directly. No technical exploit required.
Credential stuffing
With credential stuffing, an attacker uses lists of leaked passwords from other data breaches. Many people use the same password across multiple platforms. If a password was ever leaked through a webshop, the attacker will try that same password on corporate systems as well. This is one of the reasons why password reuse is so dangerous.
Identity weaknesses and misconfigurations
In addition to directly stealing credentials, attackers also look for weaknesses in how identities are configured. Think of accounts with overly broad permissions, service accounts without password rotation, or cloud configurations where certain roles are automatically assigned. These are not classic software vulnerabilities, but they do offer an attacker a viable path to sensitive systems. For more insight into how attackers identify these kinds of weaknesses, red teaming is a valuable approach.
Supply chain via MSPs
A less obvious attack path runs through the supply chain. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) often have access to the systems of dozens of clients simultaneously. Anyone who manages to steal the identity of an MSP employee potentially gains access to all of those client environments. This makes compromising an MSP particularly attractive for attackers looking for scale.
What hackers do after stealing an identity
Stealing an identity is not the end goal for an attacker — it is the starting point. What happens next often determines the extent of the damage.
Once an attacker has access via a stolen account, they begin by exploring the environment. They examine what rights the account has, which systems are reachable, and whether there are opportunities to expand those rights further. This is called privilege escalation: moving from an account with limited rights to one with administrator privileges.
The attacker then combines what they have found. An account with limited rights may seem harmless on its own. But if that account also has access to a cloud resource with a misconfiguration, and that misconfiguration provides access to a key vault containing sensitive keys, then the combination of those three small weaknesses together is sufficient for full access to critical systems. Attackers do not see individual findings — they see attack paths.
In the final phase, an attacker executes their actual objective: stealing data, installing ransomware, sabotaging systems, or leaving a backdoor for future use. Because they behave like a legitimate user, this process can last weeks or even months without being noticed. A thorough pentest can expose these kinds of attack paths before a real attacker exploits them.
How organizations effectively protect identities
Now that it is clear how attackers operate, the question is: what can you as an organization do about it? Effective protection of digital identities requires more than just strong passwords. It is about a coherent approach combining technical measures, policy, and awareness.
Multi-factor authentication as a base layer
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the most effective measures against credential theft. Even if an attacker obtains a password, they cannot gain access without the second factor. MFA is now available for virtually all business platforms and forms an essential part of cybersecurity identity management.
The principle of least privilege
Give accounts only the rights they actually need for their role. This is called the principle of least privilege. An employee who processes invoices does not need administrator rights on the server environment. By limiting rights, you automatically limit the damage an attacker can cause with a stolen identity.
Monitoring and behavioral analysis
Technical measures alone are not sufficient. It is also important to monitor whether accounts behave as expected. Is an employee suddenly logging in from another country? Is a large amount of data being downloaded outside of office hours? These kinds of anomalies can be signals of misuse of a stolen identity.
Regular review of permissions
Permissions grow organically over time in most organizations. Employees receive extra rights for a project and those rights are never revoked. A periodic review of who has access to what is a simple but effective measure. Read more about how policy and structure help with this on the page about compliance and policy.
Employee awareness
Because phishing remains one of the most widely used methods for stealing identities, employee awareness is crucial. Employees who recognize suspicious emails and know how to respond form an important line of defense. Technology can do a great deal, but human behavior remains a determining factor in the security of digital identities.
How Q-Cyber helps protect identities
Protecting identities requires insight into how attackers think and how your environment looks from the outside. That is precisely what we at Q-Cyber focus on. We help organizations not only with finding technical vulnerabilities, but also with uncovering the attack paths that arise from combinations of identity weaknesses, overly broad permissions, and misconfigurations.
What we concretely offer:
- Manual pentests in which our ethical hackers think like a real attacker, including examining identities and permissions
- Red teaming in which we simulate realistic attack scenarios to test how far an attacker can get via stolen identities
- Advice and policy development around identity management, least privilege, and access control
- Continuous insight via our Continuous-Q program, so you know where you stand even between test moments
Want to know how your organization scores in the area of identity security? Contact us and we will look together at the risks most relevant to you.