Hacktivists

In the context of cybersecurity, hacktivists are individuals or groups who combine "hacking" with "activism." Their primary motivation is to advance a social, political, or ideological cause, rather than seeking financial gain or personal notoriety. They use their technical skills to disrupt or expose systems, drawing attention to their message, protesting perceived injustices, or challenging organizations they view as oppressive or unethical.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

1. Motivations:

• Political or Social Causes: Hacktivists are driven by a strong belief in a particular cause. This can range from advocating for human rights, freedom of speech, and anti-censorship, to protesting government policies, corporate misconduct, environmental issues, or specific religious views.

• Ideology: They often share a common ideology and aim to question, provoke, and challenge entities that go against their moral position.

• Public Awareness: A key goal is to capture public and media attention, making their actions both a technical and a narrative attack. They want their targets and the wider world to understand their grievances.

• Transparency: Some hacktivist actions aim to expose hidden secrets or data, acting as a form of digital whistleblowing to promote transparency.

2. Targets: Hacktivists typically target entities they perceive as "bad" or "wrong" based on their specific cause. Common targets include:

• Government agencies

• Multinational corporations

• Religious organizations

• Law enforcement

• Organizations involved in conflicts or controversial activities

3. Common Methods and Tactics: Hacktivists employ a variety of cyber techniques, which can range from relatively non-disruptive to highly damaging:

• Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks: Flooding a website or server with an overwhelming volume of traffic to make it inaccessible to legitimate users. This disrupts operations and draws attention to their cause.

• Website Defacement: Altering the appearance of a website to display their political or social messages, often replacing the original content with their own.

• Data Breaches and Leaks (Doxing): Infiltrating systems to access and expose confidential or sensitive information (e.g., internal emails, customer data, classified documents). This can be used to embarrass, discredit, or pressure their targets. Doxing refers explicitly to the public disclosure of private information about individuals or organizations without their prior consent.

• Website Redirection: Manipulating website traffic to redirect users to websites that highlight the issues they advocate for, spreading their message to a broader audience.

• Anonymous Blogging/Whistleblowing Platforms: Using anonymous platforms to share their views, raise awareness about issues, or leak information while maintaining their anonymity.

• Virtual Sit-ins: Similar to DDoS, but often executed by a large number of individuals simultaneously visiting a targeted website to overwhelm it.

• Protestware: Using malware to promote a social cause or protest, sometimes self-inflicted by a project's maintainer to spread a message.

4. Key Characteristics:

• No Financial Gain: Unlike cybercriminals, hacktivists are typically not motivated by financial gain. Their reward is the perceived impact of their actions on their chosen cause.

• Decentralized and Anonymous: Many hacktivist groups, like the well-known Anonymous, are often decentralized and operate under a shared identity, making it difficult to pinpoint individual members. They use various tools to preserve a high level of anonymity.

• Ethical and Legal Gray Area: While their intentions may sometimes be viewed as noble by their supporters, their methods often involve unauthorized access to systems, which is illegal in most jurisdictions. This creates a debate about the ethics and legality of hacktivism.

5. Impact on Cybersecurity:

• Reputational Damage: High-profile attacks can severely tarnish the reputation of targeted organizations, leading to a loss of public trust.

• Operational Disruption and Financial Losses: DDoS attacks and other disruptions can cripple services, leading to significant operational downtime and financial losses for businesses and governments.

• Data Exfiltration Risks: Data leaks can lead to compliance issues, lawsuits, and unwanted public scrutiny, especially if sensitive personal or proprietary information is exposed.

• Exploitation of System Weaknesses: Hacktivists often expose vulnerabilities in web servers, email infrastructures, and applications, forcing organizations to strengthen their security posture.

• Escalation of Conflicts: Hacktivism can sometimes escalate political conflicts, potentially leading to counterattacks or even state-sponsored cyberwarfare.

Hacktivism vs. Cyberterrorism: It's important to distinguish hacktivism from cyberterrorism. While both are politically or ideologically motivated, cyberterrorism aims to cause grave harm, such as loss of life, severe economic damage, or widespread fear and destabilization, often targeting critical infrastructure. Hacktivism, while disruptive and illegal, generally does not seek to inflict physical harm or widespread economic devastation, focusing instead on disruption, exposure, and public messaging.

Hacktivists use hacking as a form of digital protest to bring about social or political change, making them a unique and evolving threat actor in the cybersecurity landscape.

ThreatNG, as an all-in-one external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings solution, would be a formidable tool in helping an organization defend against hacktivists. It achieves this by providing an outside-in view of the organization's digital footprint, allowing it to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities and exposures that hacktivists might target.

Here's how ThreatNG would help in detail:

External Discovery: ThreatNG's ability to perform purely external, unauthenticated discovery is paramount when facing hacktivists. Hacktivists operate from an external perspective, constantly looking for easy entry points. ThreatNG can map an organization's digital footprint without needing any internal access, effectively seeing what an attacker sees. For example, ThreatNG could discover forgotten or shadow IT assets, such as a publicly accessible and misconfigured Jira instance used by a development team, or an outdated blog running on a vulnerable CMS that the organization's internal IT team might not be aware of. These are prime targets for hacktivists looking for a quick win to deface or disrupt.

External Assessment: ThreatNG's comprehensive external assessments directly address the types of vulnerabilities and susceptibilities hacktivists often exploit:

• Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: Hacktivists frequently target web applications for defacement or data exposure. ThreatNG analyzes external web application components and uses domain intelligence to identify potential entry points. For instance, ThreatNG could pinpoint a public-facing web application vulnerable to known cross-site scripting (XSS) flaws or SQL injection vulnerabilities, which a hacktivist group could exploit to deface the site with their message or extract data.

• Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: Hacktivists frequently attempt to control subdomains to disseminate their message or host malicious content under the organization's brand. ThreatNG evaluates this susceptibility by analyzing DNS records, SSL certificate statuses, and subdomains. An example is if ThreatNG identifies a CNAME record pointing to an unprovisioned or expired cloud service, a hacktivist could register that service and take over the subdomain (e.g., campaigns.example.com) to host phishing pages or propaganda.

• BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: Phishing is a common tactic used by hacktivists to gain initial access or compromise credentials. ThreatNG assesses this risk by examining sentiment, financials, domain intelligence (including domain name permutations and Web3 domains), email intelligence (email security presence and format prediction), and dark web presence (compromised credentials). ThreatNG might reveal that an organization's domain is highly susceptible to homograph attacks (e.g., exampIe.com instead of example.com), making it easy for hacktivists to create convincing phishing domains. It could also indicate weak DMARC, SPF, or DKIM records, allowing email spoofing for targeted phishing attacks against employees to gain unauthorized access.

• Brand Damage Susceptibility: Hacktivists thrive on causing reputational harm. ThreatNG derives this score from attack surface and digital risk intelligence, ESG violations, sentiment and financials (lawsuits, SEC filings, SEC Form 8-Ks, and negative news), and domain intelligence. ThreatNG might identify an organization with several recent negative news mentions or lawsuits related to ethical concerns, coupled with easily imitable domain name permutations, indicating a high susceptibility to hacktivist-driven brand tarnishment through disinformation campaigns or "doxing" efforts.

• Data Leak Susceptibility: Exposing sensitive data is a favored tactic among hacktivists. ThreatNG assesses this through cloud and SaaS exposure, dark web presence (including compromised credentials), domain intelligence, sentiment analysis, and financials. For example, ThreatNG could detect an open and publicly accessible AWS S3 bucket containing confidential company documents or employee data. It might also find a large number of compromised employee credentials on dark web forums, signaling an imminent risk of data leaks from internal systems once hacktivists gain access.

• Cyber Risk Exposure: This assessment considers domain intelligence (certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports), code secret exposure, cloud and SaaS exposure, and compromised credentials on the dark web. ThreatNG can identify an organization with numerous open, sensitive ports (such as SSH or RDP exposed to the internet), expired SSL certificates on public-facing sites, and hardcoded API keys or database credentials found in public code repositories, all of which represent critical entry points for hacktivists.

• ESG Exposure: Hacktivists often target organizations based on perceived ethical, social, or environmental misconduct. ThreatNG rates organizations based on the discovery of ESG violations, analyzing areas such as ecological offenses, consumer issues, or employment practices. ThreatNG could highlight that an organization has received recent fines for environmental pollution, making it a prime target for hacktivist groups focused on environmental activism.

• Supply Chain & Third Party Exposure: Hacktivists may target an organization indirectly through its supply chain. ThreatNG identifies this risk through domain intelligence (vendor technology enumeration), technology stack analysis, and cloud and SaaS exposure. ThreatNG might reveal that a critical third-party vendor used by the organization for payment processing has known vulnerabilities or a history of breaches, providing a potential pathway for hacktivists to pivot from the vendor to the organization.

• Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: While hacktivists typically don't seek ransom, their disruptive actions can mimic ransomware attacks, or they may use ransomware as a tool. ThreatNG assesses this based on external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, domain intelligence (exposed sensitive ports, private IPs, vulnerabilities), dark web presence (compromised credentials, ransomware activity), and sentiment and financials (SEC Form 8-Ks). An organization with a high number of exposed sensitive ports and services, coupled with compromised credentials available on the dark web and a public SEC filing indicating recent financial difficulties, would be identified as highly susceptible to breach attempts, which hacktivists could leverage for disruption.

• Mobile App Exposure: Mobile apps can serve as a vector for hacktivists to extract information or disseminate their message. ThreatNG discovers mobile apps in marketplaces and inspects their content for exposed access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers. For example, ThreatNG could find an organization's mobile application in a public app store that contains hardcoded API keys for internal services or sensitive Firebase database configurations, making it vulnerable to data exfiltration or manipulation by hacktivists.

• Positive Security Indicators: ThreatNG not only identifies weaknesses but also highlights security strengths, such as WAFs or MFA. This is valuable as it validates existing defenses from an external attacker's view, ensuring that even if a hacktivist attempts specific attacks, the existing controls would mitigate the risk. For instance, ThreatNG might confirm that an organization's web applications are protected by a robust WAF, which would significantly deter common web-based hacktivist attacks like SQL injection or cross-site scripting.

Reporting: ThreatNG's diverse reporting capabilities (Executive, Technical, Prioritized, Security Ratings, Inventory, Ransomware Susceptibility, U.S. SEC Filings, and External GRC Assessment Mappings) are critical for an effective response to hacktivist threats. Executive reports with A-F security ratings allow leadership to quickly grasp the organization's overall vulnerability to hacktivists, while prioritized technical reports provide security teams with actionable insights (e.g., "High-priority: Unpatched vulnerability on public-facing web server accessible via subdomain dev.example.com"). This enables rapid remediation of the most critical exposures before hacktivists can exploit them.

Continuous Monitoring: Hacktivists continually search for new vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. ThreatNG's constant monitoring of the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings ensures that organizations are always aware of new exposures. Suppose a new, publicly exposed development environment is spun up or an employee's credentials are leaked on the dark web. In that case, ThreatNG immediately flags it, enabling the organization to take swift action before hacktivists can leverage the exposure. This proactive approach is essential for staying ahead of dynamic hacktivist threats.

Investigation Modules: ThreatNG's investigation modules provide the deep insights needed to understand and mitigate hacktivist threats:

• Domain Intelligence: This module provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of an organization's domains, which are frequently targeted by hacktivists for phishing, defacement, or information gathering.

  • Domain Overview: Includes digital presence word clouds, Microsoft Entra identification, domain enumeration, and related SwaggerHub instances. An organization can use this to discover all domains associated with it, including those that have been forgotten, and identify exposed API documentation that could reveal potential attack surfaces.

  • DNS Intelligence: Provides domain record analysis (IP identification, vendors, technology), domain name permutations (taken and available), and Web3 domains. For example, an organization could discover that a hacktivist group has registered a subtly different domain name (example-corp.com vs. examplecorp.com) that could be used for compelling phishing attacks.

  • Email Intelligence: Offers email security presence (DMARC, SPF, DKIM records), format predictions, and harvested emails. This could reveal if an organization's email infrastructure is easily spoofable by hacktivists due to weak DMARC policies, making it simple for them to send fake internal communications. It could also indicate if a large number of employee emails have been harvested, suggesting a heightened risk of targeted phishing campaigns.

  • WHOIS Intelligence: Includes WHOIS analysis and other domains owned by the same entity. This allows an organization to identify other domains registered by the same entity, potentially uncovering a broader network of assets that hacktivists might target.

  • Subdomain Intelligence: Analyzes HTTP responses, headers (security and deprecated), server technologies, cloud hosting, website builders, e-commerce platforms, CMS, CRMs, email marketing tools, code repositories, content identification (admin pages, APIs, development environments, VPNs), and exposed ports (IoT/OT, ICS, databases, remote access services). For example, ThreatNG might discover an exposed and unauthenticated administrative page on a subdomain (e.g., admin.example.com) or a publicly accessible database service (e.g., MongoDB on port 27017) without authentication, providing a direct access point for a hacktivist to compromise. It can also identify an old, vulnerable version of WordPress running on a test subdomain, ripe for defacement.

  • IP Intelligence: Covers IPs, shared IPs, ASNs, country locations, and private IPs. This can help identify whether any public-facing IPs are associated with known malicious activity or if internal private IPs are inadvertently exposed, which could be leveraged by hacktivists for reconnaissance purposes.

  • Certificate Intelligence: Provides TLS certificate status, issuers, active certificates, certificates without subdomains, subdomains without certificates, and associated organizations. An organization can use this to identify expired SSL certificates on their websites, which hacktivists might exploit to undermine trust or trigger browser warnings, aiding their disruptive efforts.

• Social Media: ThreatNG can analyze posts from the organization, breaking out content copy, hashtags, links, and tags. This helps an organization monitor for mentions of hacktivist campaigns against them, identify imposter accounts, or track the spread of disinformation targeting their brand.

• Sensitive Code Exposure:

  • Code Repository Exposure: Discovers public code repositories and uncovers digital risks like exposed access credentials (e.g., API keys for Stripe, Google, AWS), cloud credentials, security credentials (cryptographic private keys), configuration files, database exposures, application data, and activity records. For instance, ThreatNG might discover a public GitHub repository belonging to the organization that contains hardcoded API keys for an internal payment system or sensitive database connection strings in a configuration file. Hacktivists routinely scour public code repositories for such sensitive information to gain unauthorized access to systems or data.

• Mobile Application Discovery: ThreatNG discovers mobile apps in marketplaces and checks for exposed access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers within them. If an organization's mobile app contains hardcoded API keys to a backend system or exposed Firebase database configurations, hacktivists could exploit these to manipulate app data or access user information.

• Search Engine Exploitation:

  • Website Control Files: Discovers robots.txt and security.txt files and their contents, including secure directories, emails, admin directories, and bug bounty programs. ThreatNG might reveal that an organization's robots.txt file inadvertently lists sensitive administrative or development directories, giving hacktivists a roadmap to potential targets.

  • Search Engine Attack Surface: Helps investigate susceptibility to exposing errors, sensitive information, public passwords, and user data via search engines. An example would be if ThreatNG identifies that search engines are indexing directories containing sensitive user data or error messages that leak internal system information, providing hacktivists with valuable reconnaissance.

• Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies sanctioned/unsanctioned cloud services, impersonations, and open-exposed cloud buckets (AWS, Azure, GCP), along with SaaS implementations such as Salesforce, Slack, Workday, and Okta. ThreatNG could detect an inadvertently open AWS S3 bucket containing public marketing materials that a hacktivist could deface, or an unsanctioned instance of a SaaS collaboration tool exposing internal project details. It can also identify if the organization has an Okta instance that is not fully secured, which could be a target for identity-based attacks.

• Online Sharing Exposure: Detects the presence of organizational entities on code-sharing platforms such as Pastebin and GitHub Gist. ThreatNG might find sensitive internal discussions or leaked credentials posted on Pastebin, a platform often used by hacktivists to shame or compromise organizations publicly.

• Sentiment and Financials: Analyzes lawsuits, layoff chatter, SEC filings (especially risk and oversight disclosures and Form 8-Ks), and ESG violations. This helps predict hacktivist targets. An organization experiencing significant layoffs or facing multiple high-profile lawsuits, as visible in SEC filings, would appear to be a more attractive target for hacktivists seeking to amplify social unrest or raise ethical concerns.

• Archived Web Pages: Discovers archived online presence, including APIs, documents, login pages, and user names. ThreatNG might uncover old archived versions of login pages or API documentation that contain previously forgotten vulnerabilities, which hacktivists could exploit.

• Dark Web Presence: Monitors organizational mentions, associated ransomware events, and compromised credentials. ThreatNG could alert an organization if its compromised employee credentials are being traded on dark web forums or if specific hacktivist groups are discussing the organization as a potential target.

• Technology Stack: Identifies all technologies used by the organization, from web servers to databases and security tools. This helps in understanding the potential attack vectors. ThreatNG might show that an organization is running an outdated version of a popular CMS (e.g., WordPress) with known vulnerabilities, a prime target for hacktivists to exploit for defacement.

Intelligence Repositories (DarCache): ThreatNG's continuously updated intelligence repositories provide vital context for understanding hacktivist threats:

• Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web): Monitors the dark web for mentions related to the organization, enabling early detection of hacktivist discussions or planning targeting the organization. For example, if a hacktivist group begins discussing an organization on a dark web forum, ThreatNG could alert the organization to this early warning.

• Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): Identifies compromised credentials related to the organization. If a large batch of employee login credentials appears on a dark web marketplace, ThreatNG would flag it, allowing the organization to force password resets and prevent hacktivists from using them for unauthorized access.

• Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware): Tracks over 70 ransomware gangs. While hacktivists are distinct from ransomware gangs, their tactics can sometimes overlap, or hacktivists may employ ransomware methods for disruption. This intelligence helps understand the broader threat landscape.

• Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability): Provides a holistic view of external risks by combining NVD, EPSS, KEV, and Verified PoC Exploits.

  • NVD (DarCache NVD): Offers detailed technical characteristics and impact of vulnerabilities (Attack Complexity, Attack Interaction, Attack Vector, Impact scores, CVSS Score, and Severity). ThreatNG leveraging NVD data means it can identify specific CVEs on an organization's public-facing assets that have high CVSS scores and could lead to complete system compromise, making them appealing to hacktivists.

  • EPSS (DarCache EPSS): Provides a probabilistic estimate of the likelihood of exploitation. This is crucial for prioritization. ThreatNG can highlight a vulnerability that, while seemingly minor, has a high EPSS score, indicating it is likely to be exploited shortly by groups, including hacktivists.

  • KEV (DarCache KEV): Focuses on actively exploited vulnerabilities. If ThreatNG identifies a KEV on a public-facing server, it indicates an immediate and proven threat that hacktivists could already be using.

  • Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits (DarCache eXploit): Provides direct links to PoC exploits on platforms like GitHub. This is invaluable for security teams. Suppose ThreatNG flags a vulnerability on an organization's website that has a readily available PoC exploit on GitHub. In that case, the security team can quickly understand how a hacktivist might exploit it and prioritize remediation.

• ESG Violations (DarCache ESG): Helps identify areas of concern that might attract hacktivist attention.

• Bug Bounty Programs (DarCache Bug Bounty): Indicates in-scope and out-of-scope assets for bug bounty programs. This helps distinguish between known and unknown attack surfaces, which hacktivists may target regardless of bounty status.

• SEC Form 8-Ks (DarCache 8-K): Provides insight into significant organizational events, including security incidents or financial distress, which hacktivists might leverage.

• Mobile Apps (DarCache Mobile): Indicates exposed credentials and identifiers within mobile apps.

Synergies with Complementary Solutions: ThreatNG can work effectively with complementary solutions to enhance an organization's defense against hacktivists.

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring and real-time alerts on new exposures or changes in risk posture can feed directly into a SIEM. For example, suppose ThreatNG detects an unusual surge in traffic to a previously forgotten public-facing server (identified through external discovery and monitoring) or the exposure of sensitive API keys in a public code repository (resulting from a sensitive code exposure investigation). In that case, these events can be sent to the SIEM. The SIEM can then correlate these external insights with internal logs (e.g., failed login attempts, unusual data transfers) to provide a holistic view of a potential hacktivist attack in progress. This synergy allows for quicker detection and response by integrating external threat intelligence with internal operational data.

• Vulnerability Management (VM) Platforms: ThreatNG's detailed external assessments, including the identification of specific CVEs with high EPSS scores or KEV entries (from DarCache Vulnerability), can be directly ingested by a VM platform. For instance, if ThreatNG identifies a critical vulnerability on a public web application that has a known PoC exploit, this information can be pushed to the VM platform, which can then prioritize patching efforts, initiate automated scans to verify remediation, and track the vulnerability's lifecycle. This ensures that externally identified risks are seamlessly integrated into the internal vulnerability remediation process.

• Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG's DarCache intelligence repositories, particularly in terms of dark web presence, compromised credentials, and ransomware group activities, can enhance a TIP. For example, if ThreatNG detects discussions on the dark web about targeting an organization's specific industry or type of activism (from DarCache Dark Web), this intelligence can be shared with a TIP. The TIP can then enrich this information with other threat feeds, create custom alerts, and provide a more comprehensive picture of hacktivist trends and specific threats, enabling the organization to adjust its defensive posture proactively.

• Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platforms: ThreatNG's actionable findings and prioritized reports can trigger automated playbooks within a SOAR platform, enabling swift and effective response. For instance, if ThreatNG flags a subdomain takeover susceptibility or a critical data leak exposure, a SOAR playbook can automatically initiate steps such as alerting the security team, blocking suspicious IP addresses at the firewall, initiating a forensic investigation, or triggering a password reset for compromised accounts. This significantly reduces manual effort and accelerates response times against fast-moving hacktivist campaigns.

Examples of ThreatNG Helping with Hacktivists:

1. Preventing Defacement: A hacktivist group targets an organization known for its controversial environmental practices. ThreatNG's External Discovery identifies an old, unpatched version of a public-facing legacy blog on a forgotten subdomain (archive.company.com). Its External Assessment, specifically Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility and Cyber Risk Exposure, flags known vulnerabilities in the blog's CMS and an easily exploitable misconfiguration allowing file uploads. ThreatNG's Continuous Monitoring immediately alerts the security team to this exposed vulnerability. The Reporting provides a high-priority technical report, and the Investigation Module's Subdomain Intelligence reveals that the subdomain is actively pointing to the vulnerable server. With this information, the organization can quickly patch the CMS or decommission the old blog before the hacktivists can deface it with their messages.

2. Mitigating Data Leaks/Doxing: A hacktivist group, angered by an organization's stance on a social issue, plans to expose internal data. ThreatNG's Sensitive Code Exposure investigation module proactively scans public code repositories and discovers an internal developer's GitHub Gist that inadvertently contains hardcoded AWS S3 bucket credentials. ThreatNG's Data Leak Susceptibility assessment highlights this as a critical risk. The DarCache Rupture (Compromised Credentials) also indicates that several employee email addresses and passwords have been exposed on the dark web, likely as a result of a past third-party breach. The organization is alerted, immediately invalidates the AWS credentials, secures the S3 bucket, and enforces password resets for the compromised accounts, preventing the hacktivists from accessing and doxing sensitive company or customer data.

3. Countering Phishing and Brand Impersonation: A hacktivist group starts a campaign to discredit an organization through convincing phishing attacks. ThreatNG's BEC & Phishing Susceptibility assessment flags a high risk due to weak DMARC policies on the organization's primary domain and the existence of several highly similar domain name permutations (e.g., company-support.com) already registered. Through the Domain Intelligence investigation module, specifically DNS Intelligence and Email Intelligence, the organization identifies the malicious look-alike domains and confirms their poor email security configurations. ThreatNG's Continuous Monitoring detects newly registered, highly similar domains that emerge. The organization can then use this intelligence to issue takedown requests for the imposter domains, strengthen its DMARC policy, and proactively warn employees about the specific phishing tactics being used by hacktivists.

4. Early Warning on Mobile App Exploits: A hacktivist group is known for exploiting vulnerabilities in mobile apps. ThreatNG's Mobile App Exposure assessment scans the organization's mobile applications in marketplaces. It discovers that a widely used internal mobile application, distributed via an enterprise app store, contains hardcoded API keys for an unauthenticated internal microservice. The Mobile Apps (DarCache Mobile) intelligence confirms the presence of these sensitive credentials. ThreatNG's continuous monitoring flags this exposure immediately. The organization can update the app, remove the hardcoded keys, and implement proper authentication for the microservice before the hacktivists can reverse-engineer the app and use the exposed keys to access or disrupt internal services.