How do I know if my employees’ credentials are leaked or exposed online?

You can identify leaked credentials by monitoring dark web breach data, credential dumps, password reuse lists, and exposed email/password combinations associated with your domain. Most SaaS attacks begin with exposed credentials, even if the attacker never tries to log in immediately.

Many organizations use tools like FrontierZero, which monitors more than 20 billion breached credentials, and correlates exposure with risk factors such as MFA status, admin roles, recent password resets, and abnormal login behavior.

Why Credential Exposure Is a SaaS Security Priority

Attackers rarely start with phishing anymore; they begin with known leaked credentials from:

  • dark web forums
  • credential dumps
  • botnet logs
  • password reuse lists
  • public breach archives

Your users may never notice their passwords appeared in one of these sources, especially if the breach happened on:

  • a personal account
  • an old app
  • a vendor platform
  • a forgotten service

These credentials are then tested against corporate SaaS accounts.

1. Users reuse passwords across personal and corporate logins

If a password from a personal platform leaks, attackers try it against corporate accounts. This is why exposed credentials ≠ harmless.

2. Attackers use credential-stuffing tools before phishing

SaaS attackers often:

  • obtain leaked credentials
  • test them quietly
  • adjust location or browser to seem normal
  • bypass attention

If MFA is missing on the account, compromise is quick.

3. Exposure is dangerous if paired with privileged access

Admin accounts with leaked credentials pose the highest risk.

If a leaked password belongs to:

  • an admin
  • a power user
  • a service owner
  • a sensitive role

…the blast radius is enormous.

FrontierZero flags exposed accounts that hold privileged roles.

4. Password resets don’t always solve the problem

Resetting a password does not revoke:

  • OAuth tokens
  • API keys
  • long-lived sessions
  • SaaS-specific tokens

So risk stays active until full identity cleanup occurs.

How to Detect Leaked or Exposed Credentials (Step-by-Step)

1. Monitor dark web and breach databases for your domain

Search for:

  • email + password pairs
  • old credentials
  • partial matches
  • hashed-only passwords
  • reused credential patterns

FrontierZero monitors 20B+ records and matches exposure at the user level.

2. Correlate exposure with account security posture

Exposure becomes actionable when combined with:

  • no MFA
  • recent password reset attempts
  • abnormal login location
  • new-ish device or browser
  • admin or privileged role

This tells you whether exposure is an active risk.

3. Check for password reuse across SaaS tools

Indicators include:

  • similar login failures across apps
  • simultaneous MFA prompts
  • repeated login attempts from unknown IPs
  • sudden lockouts

Password reuse is the #1 cause of SaaS attacks.

4. Identify exposure linked to key roles

Especially:

  • admins
  • billing owners
  • IT support
  • executives
  • project leads
  • service owners

These identities have access to sensitive data.

5. Combine exposure data with pattern-of-life anomalies

A credential exposure is more dangerous when paired with:

  • impossible travel
  • new device
  • odd time of day
  • suspicious login patterns

FrontierZero correlates exposure with real-time behavior.

, Do exposed credentials always mean an account is compromised?

No, but exposure increases the probability greatly, especially without MFA.

What if the exposed password is old?

Even “old” exposures matter because many users reuse variations of the same password.

How do attackers use exposed credentials?

Common methods:

  • credential stuffing
  • brute forcing the MFA flow
  • testing against SSO logins
  • attempting OAuth app access

Attackers scale this automatically.

FAQ

Does changing the password fix credential exposure?

Not always, access tokens and sessions may still be active.

Can employees see if their credentials were exposed?

Usually not. Only external monitoring services detect it.

Does Google Workspace block logins using exposed credentials?

Google blocks known bad password patterns, but not all exposed credentials.