The Real Risk Isn’t Simple Passwords Like “Louvre”: It’s Not Knowing When Yours Are Stolen

The October heist at the Louvre and the worldwide focus on its poor choice of passwords –  it was revealed that the museum’s video surveillance system was protected by the password “Louvre” – continues to dominate headlines. But the focus on simple credential failures actually distracts from a much larger threat, in which even the strongest, most complex credentials end up in the wrong hands.

At Lunar, we draw on data collected from over a billion password records every day, including six million that are newly stolen via infostealer attacks. This gives us a firsthand look at how the relentless theft, resale, and abuse of credentials work at massive scale. Infostealer malware, sweeping mega breaches, and rampant dark web trading have elevated credential compromise into a global risk that organizations can no longer afford to ignore.

The Real Issue: Your Passwords May Actually Be Out There 

If the past was about choosing strong passwords, the reality is that today, infostealers are much more sophisticated as to how they acquire credentials. Algorithms designed to enforce password complexity, such as those requiring a mix of characters, numbers, and symbols, are no longer sufficient. Attackers now leverage automation, AI-driven password cracking tools, and large-scale credential stuffing campaigns targeting hundreds of thousands of accounts at once. 

Credentials are then exchanged at scale on underground markets, most notably on Telegram, and then weaponized by malicious actors for both direct access and lateral movement within an organization. Stolen credentials are reused, resold, and redeployed again and again, fueling persistent threats that endure far beyond the breach itself.

The stakes are clear: compromised credentials can quickly lead to devastating account takeover and business email compromise, allowing attackers to access sensitive systems while committing large-scale financial fraud, redirect payments, or impersonate trusted executives with alarming ease.

How Severe Is The Threat of Credential Theft?

According to Check Point, credential theft surged 160% worldwide from 2024-2025, unleashing a flood of compromised records. Stolen credentials make up 20% of all enterprise breaches and are frequently the foothold attackers use to access a network. 

The average time to discover and remediate a breached password is now a staggering 94 days. Furthermore, 88 percent of all web application attacks rely on stolen credentials, and just 3 percent of compromised passwords were created according to accepted best practices. And while multi-factor authentication (MFA) has its uses, attackers now bypass it whether via token theft, prompt bombing, or phishing kits that undermine SMS and app-based verification. 

Further complicating efforts to crack down on password theft, infostealers now collect credentials from uncontrolled, bring-your-own devices (BYOD), including personal laptops, apps, and file-sharing platforms well outside your IT team’s visibility.

Taking a Proactive Approach to Infostealer Attacks

Password resets and new complexity requirements respond just to the symptom. To detect and mitigate infostealer attacks, organizations must: 

1. Adopt continuous credential monitoring 

Scanning both internal assets and the wider dark web and breach ecosystems for signs of compromise can help detect an infostealer attack before significant damage takes place. Early detection empowers security teams to proactively investigate suspicious activity and shut down vulnerable accounts before attackers escalate their actions.

2. Automatically prioritize high-risk accounts for reset or lockdown 

Acting quickly at the first sign of exposure limits attackers’ window of opportunity and helps prevent lateral movement. This swift response contains the breach while minimizing disruption to business operations.

3. Integrate threat intelligence throughout the supply chain, vendor networks, and BYOD endpoints 

Expanding visibility beyond your own perimeter to include partner and BYOD devices helps strengthen defenses against attackers exploiting third-party vulnerabilities.

4. Shift focus from metrics like password length to actionable insights 

Relying on indicators such as suspicious login patterns or known breach signatures delivers a more adaptive, reality-based defense. This enables decision-makers to dedicate resources to threats that have a tangible impact instead of focusing on arbitrary password compliance rules.

5. Establish early warning systems using threat feeds, breach detection platforms, and credential surveillance 

Immediate alerts on new exposures make it possible to shut down compromised accounts before hackers can exploit them further. Automated, real-time notifications give responders the context they need to take decisive action and reduce overall response times.

Proactive Password Defense: A New Way Forward

At Lunar, we’re about to transform how organizations defend against credential threats, empowering teams to move from reactive fixes to proactive control. For the first time, security leaders will have access to the freshest, largest source of compromised credential intelligence, offering visibility and actionable data that simply wasn’t possible before.

Interested in discovering what that could mean for your business? Learn more about Lunar today.