Dumpster Diving
A social engineering technique where attackers search through discarded materials (physical or digital) to find passwords, credentials, or sensitive information.
Dumpster diving in cybersecurity refers to searching through discarded materials for sensitive information. Physically, this means going through trash bins for printed passwords, sticky notes with credentials, discarded hard drives, or documents with account details. Digitally, it means searching publicly accessible repositories, paste sites, or cached web pages for leaked credentials.
This low-tech attack vector remains surprisingly effective. Many organizations fail to properly shred documents, wipe storage devices, or clean up publicly accessible files.
Defenses include shredding sensitive documents, securely wiping storage devices before disposal, using a password manager (eliminating the need to write passwords down), and conducting regular audits of publicly accessible digital assets.
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