A recent finding has put global cybersecurity on alert: more than 73,000 Fortinet firewalls across 194 countries maintain active administrator and VPN credentials, obtained from previous leaks or stolen by malware. Companies like Samsung and entire governments are in the crosshairs, meaning the personal and work data of thousands of citizens could be within reach of attackers if organizations have not updated their passwords.
The technical risk of not rotating passwords on firewalls 🔐
From a technical point of view, the problem lies in the persistence of static credentials. Fortinet firewalls, used to protect corporate networks, often have administrator accounts and VPN access that, if not rotated periodically, remain exposed to brute force attacks or reuse of leaked data. The report indicates that many organizations still use passwords from years ago, allowing malicious actors to access critical infrastructure without needing to exploit new vulnerabilities.
The password you used in 2015 still opens doors 🚪
It seems that in the world of cybersecurity, changing your password is harder than starting a diet. Thousands of firewalls still operate with credentials that should be retired, as if you left your house key under the doormat since 2015 and were surprised that squatters got in. The worst part is that the attacker doesn't even need to be a genius: they just look at the list of leaks and find the winning combination. So, if your company is one of them, it's better that the administrator didn't use 1234 as a password.