THE piece explains that information-stealing malware, or infostealers, quietly harvest sensitive data such as saved passwords, active session cookies, and other credentials, packaging them into stealer logs that are sold on Dark Web marketplaces and Telegram channels. It emphasises that stealer logs can expose dozens of corporate credentials and active session cookies, enabling threat actors to impersonate employees, with logs often used as the lifeblood of initial access.
The article outlines a workflow from discovery to incident response, starting with rapid initial triage to verify log authenticity and recency, then credential and cookie analysis to identify high-value targets, especially SSO/IdP endpoints and VPN credentials. It notes that stolen session cookies can bypass MFA through Pass-the-Cookie attacks, allowing attackers to move laterally into tools like Jira, GitHub, and cloud services.
Case references include 2024’s Snowflake breach affecting 165 organisations and a Samsung Germany leak involving 270,000 tickets, underscoring supply chain exposure. The piece concludes by urging ongoing threat intelligence correlation and containment measures, with guidance such as credential resets and session invalidation, according to Verizon DBIR.