---
title: "Stop Making Hackers’ Job Too Easy | DuoCircle"
description: "It’s a common folklore that the greatest cyber-attacks in history are pulled off by genius hackers using clever hacking techniques to exploit a zero-day."
image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png"
canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/stop-making-hackers-job-too-easy/"
---

Quick Answer

Most breaches are not exotic exploits, they are stolen credentials. Centrify found 74 percent of breached organizations involved a privileged account, and Forrester puts the figure at 80 percent. The path is usually a phishing email that lifts a username and password from one employee, ideally one with privileged access. Once the account is compromised, the attacker impersonates a legitimate user and moves laterally without tripping intrusion alarms. Defenses include MFA, least-privilege enforcement, behavior-based anomaly detection, and access zoning, but the highest-leverage move is keeping the phishing email out of the inbox in the first place. Anti-phishing email security with link rewriting and attachment scanning catches the credential theft attempt before any control further down the chain has to fire.

Share 

[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F "Share on LinkedIn") [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Stop%20Making%20Hackers%E2%80%99%20Job%20Too%20Easy&url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F "Share on X/Twitter") [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F "Share on Facebook") [ ](https://reddit.com/submit?url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F&title=Stop%20Making%20Hackers%E2%80%99%20Job%20Too%20Easy "Share on Reddit") [ ](mailto:?subject=Stop%20Making%20Hackers%E2%80%99%20Job%20Too%20Easy&body=Check out this article: undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F "Share via Email") 

![Hackers](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/04/spf-record-7347.jpg) 

It’s a common folklore that the greatest cyber-attacks in history are pulled off by genius hackers using clever hacking techniques to exploit a zero-day vulnerability on some obscure back-room database server. The reality is very different.

According to a recent [study by security firm Centrify](https://www.centrify.com/media/4909003/centrify%5Fpam%5Fsurvey.pdf), “_74 percent of respondents whose organizations have been breached acknowledge it involved access to a privileged account._” In other words, they got phished. How else do you think the hackers got the usernames and passwords?

Rather than spending hundreds of hours and millions of CPU cycles trying to hack into a computer network, hackers simply craft a quick **phishing email** and get some employee’s login credentials. Most likely an employee with access to a privileged account.

[![phishing email](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/04/spf-validator-7353.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/04/spf-validator-7353.jpg)

According to an [article on Security Week website](https://www.securityweek.com/anatomy-hack-perception-vs-reality), “This number closely aligns with Forrester’s estimate that 80 percent of security breaches involve compromised privileged credentials. When a privileged account gets compromised, it allows the cyber-attacker to impersonate a legit employee or system and carry out malicious activity without being detected as an intruder. _Once hackers compromise a privileged account, they can typically roam at will across an IT environment to exfiltrate data and cause damage.”_

### People and organizations are making it too darn easy on hackers.

Of course there are many technologies which can be used to try and stop compromised credentials. These include multi-factor authentication (MFA), establishing access zones, enforcing least privilege, behavior-based machine learning and risk scoring. Some of these technologies are [more effective than others](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/opinion/2fa-cyberattacks-security.html).

Perhaps the simplest way to prevent employees’ credentials from being compromised is to eliminate the possibility of employees getting phished. It’s not as sexy as some of those other technologies, but **anti-phishing technology** has been around for a while. It’s fast to deploy and doesn’t cost much. And more importantly, it works.

[![anti-phishing technology](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/04/spf-validator-7354.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/04/spf-validator-7354.jpg)

Whenever I read about some hack somewhere, I inevitably also read about the victims scrambling to find some super new technology to address the most recent hack. But, sometimes the solution already exists and is right in front of you.

If you want to put a stop to compromised credentials at your company, and you want to do it fast, then you are at the right place. Duocircle, with Advanced Threat Defense, is a cloud-based [email security service](/advanced-threat-defense) that protects employees from malicious emails 24/7 on any device. You’ll be up and protected in ten minutes.

![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg) 

Brad Slavin 

General Manager

General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio.

## Secure your email infrastructure

Protect, authenticate, and deliver. Contact our team to find the right solution.

[Contact Sales](/contact/) [Explore Products](/products/) 

Share this article

[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F) [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Stop%20Making%20Hackers%E2%80%99%20Job%20Too%20Easy&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F) [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fstop-making-hackers-job-too-easy%2F) Copy 

Related Articles

- [ ![AI-Generated Phishing](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2026/04/spf-record-4522.jpg)  AI-Generated Phishing Has Eliminated the Typo: Why Traditional Email Filters Are No Longer Enough Phishing ](/blog/ai-generated-phishing-eliminates-typos-making-traditional-email-filters-ineffective/)
- [ ![spf-permerror-4555](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2023/05/spf-permerror-4555.jpg)  10 Applications of ChatGPT that Hackers Are Already Exploiting Phishing ](/blog/phishing-protection/10-applications-of-chatgpt-that-hackers-are-already-exploiting/)
- [ ![Email-Based Cyber-Attacks](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2016/03/spf-record-tester-4455.jpg)  65% of Global Businesses Ill-Equipped to Defend Against Email-Based Cyber-Attacks Phishing ](/blog/phishing-protection/65-global-businesses-ill-equipped-defend-email-based-cyber-attacks/)
- [ ![Email-based Ransomware Attacks](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2018/02/email-smtp-service-7834.jpg)  7 Ways to Protect Your Organization from Email-based Ransomware Attacks Phishing ](/blog/phishing-protection/7-ways-protect-organization-email-based-ransomware-attacks/)

## Related Articles

[  Phishing 11m  AI-Generated Phishing Has Eliminated the Typo: Why Traditional Email Filters Are No Longer Enough  Apr 28, 2026 ](/blog/ai-generated-phishing-eliminates-typos-making-traditional-email-filters-ineffective/)[  Phishing 5m  10 Applications of ChatGPT that Hackers Are Already Exploiting  May 3, 2023 ](/blog/phishing-protection/10-applications-of-chatgpt-that-hackers-are-already-exploiting/)[  Phishing 4m  65% of Global Businesses Ill-Equipped to Defend Against Email-Based Cyber-Attacks  Mar 29, 2016 ](/blog/phishing-protection/65-global-businesses-ill-equipped-defend-email-based-cyber-attacks/)[  Phishing 9m  7 Ways to Protect Your Organization from Email-based Ransomware Attacks  Feb 11, 2018 ](/blog/phishing-protection/7-ways-protect-organization-email-based-ransomware-attacks/)

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","subOrganization":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138898167","name":"DMARC Report","url":"https://dmarcreport.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897474","name":"AutoSPF","url":"https://autospf.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897912","name":"Phish Protection","url":"https://www.phishprotection.com"}],"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/company/duocircle","https://x.com/duocirclellc","https://www.facebook.com/duocirclellc","https://www.g2.com/products/phish-protection-by-duocircle/reviews","https://github.com/duocircle","https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/duocircle-llc"],"contactPoint":{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactType":"customer support","url":"https://support.duocircle.com"},"knowsAbout":["Email Security","Email Authentication","SPF","DKIM","DMARC","Phishing Protection","Spam Filtering","SMTP Relay","Email Deliverability","Email Forwarding"]}
```

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebSite","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","subOrganization":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138898167","name":"DMARC Report","url":"https://dmarcreport.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897474","name":"AutoSPF","url":"https://autospf.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897912","name":"Phish Protection","url":"https://www.phishprotection.com"}]}}
```

```json
[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Stop Making Hackers’ Job Too Easy","description":"It’s a common folklore that the greatest cyber-attacks in history are pulled off by genius hackers using clever hacking techniques to exploit a zero-day.","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/stop-making-hackers-job-too-easy/","datePublished":"2019-04-15T14:27:16.000Z","dateModified":"2025-04-21T11:35:27.000Z","dateCreated":"2019-04-15T14:27:16.000Z","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://www.duocircle.com/authors/brad-slavin/#person","name":"Brad Slavin","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/authors/brad-slavin/","jobTitle":"General Manager","description":"Brad Slavin runs DuoCircle, the company behind DMARC Report, AutoSPF, Phish Protection, and Mailhop. His focus is product strategy, customer relationships, and the commercial and compliance side of email authentication (DPAs, SLAs, enterprise procurement).","image":"https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg","knowsAbout":["Email Security Strategy","SaaS Product Management","Enterprise Compliance","Customer Success","Email Deliverability Business"],"worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com"},"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradslavin"]},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","subOrganization":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138898167","name":"DMARC Report","url":"https://dmarcreport.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897474","name":"AutoSPF","url":"https://autospf.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897912","name":"Phish Protection","url":"https://www.phishprotection.com"}]},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/stop-making-hackers-job-too-easy/"},"articleSection":"phishing-protection","keywords":"","wordCount":397,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/04/spf-record-7347.jpg","caption":"Hackers","width":900,"height":600},"speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":[".answer-block","h1"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Phishing"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Stop Making Hackers’ Job Too Easy","item":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/stop-making-hackers-job-too-easy/"}]}]
```

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://www.duocircle.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Phishing","item":"https://www.duocircle.comundefined"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Stop Making Hackers’ Job Too Easy","item":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/stop-making-hackers-job-too-easy/"}]}
```

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Stop Making Hackers’ Job Too Easy","description":"It’s a common folklore that the greatest cyber-attacks in history are pulled off by genius hackers using clever hacking techniques to exploit a zero-day.","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/stop-making-hackers-job-too-easy/","datePublished":"2019-04-15T14:27:16.000Z","dateModified":"2025-04-21T11:35:27.000Z","dateCreated":"2019-04-15T14:27:16.000Z","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://www.duocircle.com/authors/brad-slavin/#person","name":"Brad Slavin","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/authors/brad-slavin/","jobTitle":"General Manager","description":"Brad Slavin runs DuoCircle, the company behind DMARC Report, AutoSPF, Phish Protection, and Mailhop. His focus is product strategy, customer relationships, and the commercial and compliance side of email authentication (DPAs, SLAs, enterprise procurement).","image":"https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg","knowsAbout":["Email Security Strategy","SaaS Product Management","Enterprise Compliance","Customer Success","Email Deliverability Business"],"worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com"},"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradslavin"]},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","subOrganization":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138898167","name":"DMARC Report","url":"https://dmarcreport.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897474","name":"AutoSPF","url":"https://autospf.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897912","name":"Phish Protection","url":"https://www.phishprotection.com"}]},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/stop-making-hackers-job-too-easy/"},"articleSection":"phishing-protection","keywords":"","wordCount":397,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/04/spf-record-7347.jpg","caption":"Hackers","width":900,"height":600},"speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":[".answer-block","h1"]}}
```