Identifying Compromised Credentials with Identity Intelligence

Every day, stolen credentials are bought, sold, and exploited on the dark web, fueling account takeovers, data breaches, and financial fraud. Organizations must act fast to stop these threats before they escalate. Yet, traditional security tools struggle to detect compromised credentials before it’s too late.

According to Bitsight’s upcoming State of the Underground 2025 report, leaked credentials surged by 24% and logs listed on underground markets rose by 13.2% in 2024 alone. As cybercriminals refine their tactics, organizations need smarter ways to detect and mitigate identity threats in real time.

Our Identity Intelligence module puts the odds back in your favor, providing real-time monitoring of leaked credentials to help detect threats before attackers exploit them. With instant alerts, continuous monitoring, and actionable insights, security teams can proactively respond to identity threats rather than reacting after a breach has occurred. Leveraging Bitsight’s elite threat intelligence services team, organizations can even reclaim or remove compromised credentials from underground markets before they are exploited.

Key takeaways

• Credential leaks are rising, making early detection critical.
• Identity Intelligence makes it easy to manage compromised credentials and view access for sale on the dark web, while also offering takedown/purchasing services.
• Password policy and Identity Providers (such as Active Directory) status filtering allows users to focus on relevant and priority credentials.
• A free trial of Identity Intelligence is available for organizations to test drive the module.

What are identity threats?

Every organization is made up of individuals—each a potential target for cybercriminals. Cybercriminals target employees, stealing and selling their corporate logins, to give attackers an easy gateway into internal systems. These compromised identities are often used to bypass security controls, escalate privileges, or move laterally across networks.

Bitsight’s role in combatting identity threats

Bitsight continuously monitors underground sources—including the clear, deep, and dark web—to track compromised credentials in real time. Bitsight:

• Alerts organizations instantly when credentials are leaked or sold.
• Provides deep context on breaches, including usernames, passwords, and source details.
• Enables proactive security actions, helping teams remediate risks before credentials are exploited.
• Supports automated alerts for leaked credentials found on instant messaging apps, IRC chats, and limited-access dark web forums.

With Bitsight Cyber Threat Intelligence, security teams can identify the likely source of data breaches and intercept the sale of stolen credentials before they are exploited.

Spotting compromised credentials to secure assets and protect your team

From activation, the Identity Intelligence module leverages Bitsight EASM to provide immediate visibility into compromised accounts and continuously monitor organizational domains across the cybercriminal underground. It also alerts security teams when malware gains access to their domain and is being sold, offering the option to reclaim or remove compromised access through Bitsight.

The Identity Intelligence module offers two key views:

1) Compromised credentials

Compromised credentials tracks exposed credentials linked to specific systems—corporate portals, Jira instances, streaming services, and more. These credentials primarily originate from data dumps from known breaches, anonymous leaks, underground chatter, stealer malware (infostealer) logs, and credentials sold in Log markets, and may include leaked email-password combinations. However, due to the nature of underground data sharing, attribution isn’t always precise.

2) Access currently for sale

“Access currently for sale” displays information on compromised devices, typically via stealer malware, that is available for purchase across underground markets. This data is based on the assets (domains and IPs) that are listed in an organization’s attack surface. With Bitsight’s elite threat intelligence services, we can infiltrate limited-access marketplaces to covertly take down and purchase stolen access being sold across the dark web.

Focusing on priority credential exposures

Having access to thousands of leaked credentials can be overwhelming, and not all exposures pose immediate risks. The Identity Intelligence module includes advanced filtering to help security teams focus on high-priority threats.

• Previously Detected Filter: Identifies recently exposed credentials, preventing teams from reassessing old leaks that have been circulating underground for a while.
• Identity Providers (Active Directory) Status Filter: Helps security teams determine if an exposed credential belongs to an active user, enabling smarter remediation decisions.

• Customizable Password Policy Filter: Ensures teams focus on relevant exposures rather than fake or outdated credentials shared on underground markets.

• Quick Incident Response: Search for specific hostnames, email domains, hardware IDs, and IP addresses to act fast when detecting credential leaks.

Automatic alert remediation and playbook implementation

Bitsight partners with no-code security automation providers (Torq, Tines, Etc.) as well as SOAR platforms like Splunk, Cortex XSOAR  to bridge the gap between intelligence and immediate action. This enables users to run ‘playbooks’ when uncovering specific intelligence items to remediate immediate threats as they emerge.

Getting started with Identity Intelligence

With Bitsight’s Identity Intelligence module, you have access to the most pressing compromised credential information, optimally positioning you to take immediate action. 

Ready to take control of identity threats? Talk to our team about getting started, or get a preview with our interactive product demo.