UK anti-fraud non-profit Cifas just published research that should bother anyone who runs a business, or buys from one: One in eight workers at large enterprises have either sold their company login credentials or know someone who did.
The internet is awash with compromised credentials that employees use to access company systems. Threat intelligence company KELA tracked nearly 2.9 billion compromised credentials globally in 2025. Most of these come from phishing attacks and infostealers. But thanks to employees wanting to make a quick buck, cyber criminals can just make people an offer.
The insiders nobody’s watching
Cifas interviewed 2,000 employees of companies with at least 1,000 staff. Of these, 13% admitted to selling their corporate access credentials in the last 12 months, or knowing someone who did. Amazingly, as the report says, the sellers did so “often under the belief it’s harmless.”
Newsflash: Selling your account credentials isn’t harmless. Criminals want them so they can take over the account and do nefarious things with it. Account takeovers in the US surged 6% to over 78,000 last year, according to Verizon.
