This attack is just shedding light on the fact that you're even more vulnerable outside of the office, said Don Aviv, CEO of Interfor International, a security consultancy.
"Shortly after access was terminated, we began receiving extortion demands. The criminals threatened to distribute materials from both the February 2025 incident and the recent incident to media outlets and on social media if we did not comply. We will not pay these criminals," Percoco stated.
I've always had what I would consider a hacker mindset, a curiosity to take things apart, understand them, and use that knowledge to solve problems. That mindset took me on a circuitous route into the cybersecurity industry; after being kicked out of high school for hacking computer systems, I worked a range of jobs, managing office supply companies by day and cracking Wi-Fi networks by night until I started a Digital Forensics degree which led me to the world of security research.
"These incidents involve the intentional use of deceptive or illegal practices to fraudulently obtain money, assets, or information from individuals or institutions, and include actions carried out over cyber channels."
The methodology involved assessing Comparitech's Most Common Password report and NordPass's Top 200 Most Common Passwords list, then leveraging KeywordTool to determine search volumes to find the 25 most common passwords based on global popularity. According to the research, higher search volumes could suggest higher public interest, which could lead to higher password usage. Therefore, this places those passwords at a greater risk of being hacked.
Near-identical password reuse occurs when users make small, predictable changes to an existing password rather than creating a completely new one. While these changes satisfy formal password rules, they do little to reduce real-world exposure. Here are some classic examples: Adding or changing a number Summer2023! → Summer2024! Appending a character Swapping symbols or capitalization Welcome! → Welcome? AdminPass → adminpass Another common scenario occurs when organizations issue a standard starter password to new employees, and instead of replacing it entirely, users make incremental changes over time to remain compliant.
Web browsers are among the top targets for today's cybercriminals, playing a role in nearly half of all security incidents, new research reveals. According to Palo Alto Networks' 2026 Global Incident Response report, an analysis of 750 major cyber incidents recorded last year across 50 countries found that, in total, 48% of cybercrime events involved browser activity. Individuals trying to connect to the web, including business employees, are exposed to cyberthreats on a daily basis.