Infostealer malware has become one of the most important drivers of account takeover attacks. These malicious programs are designed to steal usernames, passwords, browser cookies, session tokens, autofill data, and other sensitive information from infected devices.
For companies, this creates a serious security and business problem. Attackers can use stolen credentials to access employee accounts, customer accounts, SaaS platforms, cloud systems, email inboxes, admin panels, and internal tools. In many cases, they do not need to break through the company’s network. They can simply log in with credentials that were already stolen.
This is why account takeover, or ATO, has become a major concern for security, fraud, risk, and executive teams. A compromised account can lead to financial fraud, data theft, business email compromise, regulatory exposure, customer churn, and reputational damage.
Lunar helps companies reduce this risk by detecting exposed credentials, stolen session data, and infostealer-related compromises before attackers can use them. It gives security teams the visibility and context they need to act quickly, prioritize the highest-risk exposures, and prevent account takeover from turning into a business incident.
What Are Infostealers?
Infostealers are a type of malware built to collect sensitive information from infected computers and devices. They often operate silently in the background while the user continues working as usual.
Once installed, an infostealer can extract saved browser passwords, cookies, authentication tokens, login URLs, device information, email credentials, crypto wallet data, and other valuable information. This stolen data is then sent to the attacker and often appears in criminal marketplaces, private forums, Telegram groups, or stealer log databases.
For businesses, the main danger is access. A stolen password can give an attacker entry into a corporate system. A stolen cookie can help bypass MFA. A compromised email account can be used for fraud, phishing, or business email compromise. A stolen admin login can expose sensitive systems and data.
Infostealers turn infected devices into a direct path toward account takeover.
Why Infostealers Are a Business-Level Threat
Many companies invest heavily in firewalls, endpoint security, identity systems, and employee training. These controls are important, but infostealers create a visibility gap. Credentials can be stolen from corporate devices, personal devices, unmanaged laptops, contractor machines, or customer endpoints. Once that data leaves the device, the company may have no direct alert from its internal systems.
This creates a timing problem. Attackers may see, buy, and use exposed credentials before the company knows they exist. By the time suspicious login activity appears, the attacker may already have accessed the account, changed settings, stolen data, or moved deeper into the environment.
The business impact can be significant. Account takeover can affect employees, customers, executives, partners, and privileged users. It can lead to fraud, service abuse, data exposure, compliance issues, support costs, and brand damage. For customer-facing businesses, ATO also creates friction and loss of trust. Customers expect companies to protect their accounts, even when credentials were stolen outside the company’s own environment.
This is why companies need external visibility into exposed credentials and infostealer data, not only internal detection after login attempts begin.
How Infostealers Lead to Account Takeover
The path from infostealer infection to account takeover is usually direct. A user downloads malware through a phishing email, fake software update, malicious website, cracked software, or deceptive ad. The malware collects credentials and session data from the device. The stolen data is then uploaded to the attacker or distributed through criminal channels.
From there, attackers use the credentials to access real accounts. They may test passwords across multiple services, use session cookies to bypass MFA, or sell the access to other criminals. If the exposed account belongs to an employee, the attacker may target email, VPN, cloud tools, internal systems, or SaaS applications. If the account belongs to a customer, the attacker may commit fraud, change account details, make purchases, withdraw funds, or abuse the service.
The key point is simple: infostealers give attackers ready-to-use access. This makes them one of the most effective sources of account takeover risk.
Why Traditional Security Tools Are Not Enough
Traditional security tools play an important role, but many of them focus on what happens inside the company’s environment. Infostealer exposure often happens outside that environment.
Endpoint security may miss the original infection. MFA may be bypassed if the attacker has a valid session cookie. SIEM alerts may appear only after the attacker tries to log in. Breach databases may be delayed, incomplete, or too generic to support fast action. Manual investigations take time and often lack the context needed to understand the real level of risk.
Security teams need to know which credentials were exposed, when they were stolen, which application they belong to, whether cookies or tokens were included, which malware family was involved, and whether the affected account is high risk. Without that context, every alert becomes harder to prioritize.
Lunar is built to solve this problem. It helps companies move from late detection to early prevention.
How Lunar Helps Prevent Account Takeover
Lunar helps organizations detect exposed credentials and compromised account data before attackers use them. It continuously monitors sources where stolen credentials and infostealer logs appear, including breach data, criminal marketplaces, underground channels, and other external exposure sources.
Instead of sending generic alerts, Lunar provides business-relevant intelligence. It shows which accounts are exposed, what data was compromised, where the exposure came from, and how risky it is. This allows security teams to focus on the exposures that matter most.
For example, an exposed password for a low-risk test account may require one level of response. A fresh infostealer log containing a corporate email password, login URL, session cookie, and device details for a finance employee requires urgent action. Lunar helps teams make that distinction quickly.
With Lunar, organizations can identify compromised employee accounts, customer accounts, partner accounts, privileged users, and exposed login data connected to business-critical systems. The platform helps teams prioritize, investigate, and act before account takeover causes damage.
Turning Credential Exposure Into Action
The real value of exposure intelligence comes from action. Lunar helps security teams respond quickly and consistently.
When exposed credentials are detected, teams can reset passwords, revoke sessions, force MFA, lock accounts, trigger identity verification, open tickets, notify the right teams, and investigate the affected device. Lunar can also support integration with existing security workflows, including SIEM, SOAR, IAM, identity providers, fraud systems, and ticketing platforms.
This means companies can use Lunar as part of their existing security operation rather than creating a separate manual process. The goal is to reduce the time between exposure and remediation.
Fast response matters. The shorter the time between credential exposure and action, the lower the chance that attackers can use the account successfully.
Key Business Use Cases for Lunar
Lunar supports several important account takeover prevention use cases.
For employee account protection, Lunar helps security teams detect compromised corporate credentials before attackers use them to access email, SaaS tools, VPNs, cloud platforms, or internal systems.
For customer account protection, Lunar helps companies identify exposed customer credentials and take targeted action. This can reduce fraud, lower support costs, and protect customer trust without creating unnecessary friction for every user.
For credential stuffing defense, Lunar helps organizations understand which credentials are already exposed and likely to be tested against their systems. This allows teams to strengthen defenses before large-scale attacks succeed.
For MFA bypass risk, Lunar helps identify cases where stolen cookies or session tokens may allow attackers to access accounts without needing the password or MFA challenge again.
For privileged account protection, Lunar helps prioritize exposures tied to executives, administrators, developers, finance teams, and other high-impact users.
The Business Benefits of Using Lunar
Lunar helps companies reduce account takeover risk in a practical and measurable way. It gives security teams earlier visibility into exposed credentials and stolen session data. It helps prioritize the accounts that create the highest business risk. It supports faster remediation through clear context and workflow integration.
This creates value across the organization. Security teams can respond faster. Fraud teams can reduce account abuse. Customer support teams can avoid unnecessary escalations. Risk and compliance teams can show a stronger approach to credential exposure management. Leadership gets better visibility into a threat that directly affects revenue, trust, and business continuity.
Most importantly, Lunar helps companies act before account takeover becomes a larger incident.
Building a Stronger ATO Defense Strategy
A strong account takeover strategy starts with the understanding that many attacks begin outside the company’s systems. Employees, customers, contractors, and partners may have credentials stolen from devices the company does not fully control. Those credentials can still create direct risk for the business.
Companies should combine strong authentication, endpoint protection, employee awareness, session management, fraud detection, and external credential monitoring. Lunar strengthens this strategy by giving companies visibility into exposed credentials and infostealer data as soon as possible.
With this visibility, security teams can move from reactive investigation to proactive prevention. They can detect compromised accounts earlier, prioritize the riskiest exposures, and take action before attackers turn stolen credentials into account takeover.
Conclusion: Account Takeover Prevention Starts Before the Login
Infostealers have changed the way attackers gain access to companies. Many attacks now begin with stolen credentials, cookies, or tokens that were collected before the company sees any suspicious login attempt.
That makes account takeover a business risk, not only a technical security issue. It can affect revenue, customer trust, operations, compliance, and brand reputation.
Lunar helps companies address this risk earlier. By monitoring infostealer logs, exposed credentials, stolen session data, and underground sources, Lunar gives security teams the intelligence they need to detect exposure, prioritize risk, and respond before attackers can take over accounts.
Lunar helps companies turn external credential exposure into proactive account takeover defense.
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